Old Moon
by speaking-of-italy
Summary: Six years after BD. What happens when the Cullens and the Quileutes encounter something completely unexpected? A war exists that they knew nothing about until it made its way to Forks. What will they do with the danger so close to home? Summary inside.
1. Birthday After a Full Moon

_**SUMMARY: It's been six years since Bella's transformation. The Cullens still live in Forks (you'll find out why later). Everything is great until they get some unexpected news about some unexpected visitors-- werewolves, the real ones. What will happen when the Cullens have to do whatever they can (including visiting an old friend) to learn about werewolves in order to fight them? What happens when the hopeless war they were preparing to fight for isn't the war they get? What happens when they're stuck in the middle of right and wrong when their lives depend on it? What if their decisions lead to the largest supernatural power struggle in centuries? **_

_**If you think you have it figured out, you have no idea. I've got some twists up my sleeves. It will all be in Bella's POV. It will have action and suspense and worry and Edward/Bella time.**_

**Author's Note: Ok, here goes my first attempt at writing a fanfic. This story takes place after Breaking Dawn. I'm trying to keep true to the characters and take the story where I think it could go because I don't want it to end. I liked the ending, but I just can't get enough! So here goes nothing!**

**All the wonderful characters belong to the amazing Stephenie Meyer. I don't own them, and that sincerely makes me sad. **

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Chapter 1 "[Birth]Day After a Full Moon"

My life was perfect. Laying here in bed next to the most beautiful _man _on the planet was just one of the many wonderful quirks my life had. My family was wonderful. My daughter was wonderful. My father still being in my life was wonderful. The peace with the Quileute wolves was wonderful. Friendship with Jacob was wonderful again. Edward was wonderful. He was more than that. As he laid there with his eyes closed humming a new melody, he hugged me to his chest and grazed his fingertips lightly across the small of my back. Edward was perfect

"Edward, do we really have to get out of bed?" I begged with my lips softly against his collarbone and my hand running down his smooth marble chest. It wasn't even light outside yet, and I thought it ludicrous that we should have to get dressed before the sun was high in the sky, if ever. The full moon from the night before was becoming less visible, and I knew the sun would be up soon.

"Bella," he growled, although the sound wasn't the least bit menacing. "I cannot listen to Jacob Black's thoughts coherently with you touching me like _this_." I smiled against his shoulder and kissed lightly up his throat, his jaw, and then his ear. I sighed and peeled myself away from him to go get dressed.

I sighed again when I entered the huge bedroom-sized closet for two reasons.

First, because I knew he was right behind me and I did not want him to put on _anything_.

Second, because this closet still held silk and satin garments I had never worn and had no intention to ever wear. All the silk and satin and lace items I did wear didn't seem to survive the night to be worn again.

He was then right behind me with his arms around my waist, holding me tight against every plane of his perfect body. This was _not_ helping my self control. He laid his head on my shoulder and pressed his lips to my throat softly. I sighed again.

He sighed too and turned me to face him. "Bella, why is it so…difficult for me to let go of you in the mornings? If I could put off the sun for a few more hours, I most certainly would. And if I could put off _this_ day entirely, believe me..."

"A few more hours? Try days!" Or weeks. Months would be okay with me too. "And as for today, Nessie is growing up and we trust Jacob to…"

"In theory," he interrupted.

I smiled at him slightly in reassurance. "They'll be with Charlie and Billy. They'll be fine." I reached up and kissed him to distract him from his worries. It worked. He kissed me back eagerly, pulling me tightly against him and carrying me to the dresser. My fingers made their way into his auburn hair and my legs locked around his waist. After a minute of my very heated distraction, Edward pulled away. I was confused. He didn't pull away anymore, ever. Not since I had become more than human and fairly indestructible.

"Jacob's close by, and he's excited about today." He frowned at this, and I hesitantly disentangled myself from him, giving him one last kiss on the lips.

After Jacob and Nessie left, we walked at a human pace to the Cullen's main house. I was still a little bitter about being up and decent at this hour, but I could tell Edward was too. He stopped just after we jumped the creek and pulled me into his arms.

"Today is September thirteenth." He put a finger to my lips to silence my inevitable oncoming protest. "I know. No celebration, but still it would be wrong of me not to wish you a very Happy Birthday, love."

I moaned, but he pressed his lips to mine, and I forgot why I was suddenly aggravated.

Today I would've been twenty-five years old, a whole quarter century, a milestone in mortal age. Instead, today I was a timeless immortal in an eighteen year old body. Eighteen not nineteen. I _refuse_ to think forever nineteen, even if the change was finished on that day.

Even after spending the last six years as a vampire with no regard to age or years (other than pertaining to Renesmee, of course), Alice apparently still insisted on putting on the birthday charade in my honor. She hadn't done this since that _nineteenth_ birthday. My mouth filled with venom as that thought crossed my mind. _Nineteen_. Ugh.

I assumed she'd finally decided not to complicate my life with her silly decorations, but I'm beginning to think she never will grasp how much I _hate_ being the center of attention.

"Alice!" I hissed as I walked through the front doors of the house, eyeing flowers, ribbons, and a table with eloquently wrapped presents-- smelling of more satin and silk, and I hoped secretly it was more lingerie-- and a "Happy Birthday, Bella" banner hanging above.

"Bella, it's your birthday! You've been ali-- in existence now for twenty-five years. I think it's hardly something to skip out on celebrating."

"Alice, this is ridiculous! I am forever eighteen years old! It should've stopped there, really. This is absurd."

"_Nineteen_, Bella…" Alice corrected. I glowered, now seeing her perfect pixie face in a deep shade of red. She ignored me. "You just want to go and ruin my fun! I think it's important to commemorate important years in our existence. Besides, technically it's both your human and your vampire birthday! You're twenty-five and you're six! I am not just doing this to make you miserable."

Somehow I wasn't so sure about that. We celebrated everybody's birthday at the beginning of each year, and that was more than enough. We didn't celebrate vampire births or human births in particular. We did celebrate half-vampire-half-human births, however. Renesmee's birthday was just three days ago. Did Alice really _need_ another party so soon?

One birthday party for me a year was one too many. I didn't need to celebrate my human birthday anymore. I was the happiest being on the planet, and I didn't need a silly party commemorating ancient history. I loved my life with Edward and Renesmee and the rest of my vampire family. The Cullens all stood under the birthday banner. Esme smiled softly with Carlisle's arm around her waist. Emmett looked amused. Rosalie wore a cautious smile. Alice was all but jumping up and down, glowing with excitement. Jasper looked nervous, probably because he knew the anger I was feeling about this particular little surprise.

I looked at Edward next and thought I saw a hint of sadness in his eyes that I wasn't supposed to see. He knew how happy I was. Everybody knew how happy I was. He was happy too. But Edward still blamed himself silently for the life that I had chosen, that fate had chosen, for me. This was the life that was meant for me, and although he knew it, he still resented himself slightly. I didn't want him to be sad about this stupid day. I didn't want him to be sad about _that_ ever.

Celebrating today was just insane, and I protested. "Alice, _yesterday_ was my vampire birthday, and today is just another day. We've already celebrated mine and every one else's birthdays this year. This is pointless."

Alice narrowed her eyes and was about to speak when Edward let out a snarl. He looked at me with concern. Just as I was about to say something very curt to him, he was at my side with arms wrapped tightly around me and eyes locked on mine.

"Bella, I truly am sorry. I had no idea she would do this. She hid her thoughts well, but now I see what her little hunting trip was really about." He scowled in Alice's direction and spoke "Really, Alice? The twenty-fifth birthday? I was expecting fifty or maybe a hundred, but twenty-five?"

She giggled, "Oh, come on, Edward! I've never been around for anyone's twenty-fifth birthday before. I never knew any of you when you were human! And yes, I did have to go on a little trip… a shopping trip! We needed new decorations, and I couldn't very well have you seeing my plans and ruining my surprise!" Alice smiled smugly, obviously content her plans to surprise me had worked.

Edward turned to face me again and put one hand on either side of my face. His eyes burned into mine and worry creased his forehead. There are parts of this new life that are hard to accustom to even after six years. Edward's unbearable beauty--his deep, amber eyes and flawless angel's face-- seen through my perfect, infallible vision still left me breathless as he always had.

Even though breathing was no longer a necessity, I took in a ragged breath just as I had when I was human and he had dazzled me that way. Edward smiled his half smile and whispered against my ear, "Breathe, Bella," obviously recalling the same memory.

I relaxed suddenly, unsure if it was Edward's smile or Jasper's uncanny abilities. I decided it didn't matter and to just endure Alice's plans.

I would just get this over with and keep my focus on Edward and my favorite half-smile, his perfectly chiseled lips, the sweet taste of his lips, the way they felt… Amazing! Six years of being immortal and he still dazzled me, and not only dazzled me, but made me putty in his all-too-capable hands.

Granite hard putty maybe, but nevertheless, if I could be weak in the knees I would be when he looked at me that way. My mind racing in thousands of directions that all focus on his mouth never helped my knees either.

Then, an idea hit me. I could still get out of this. Edward still had his hands on my face, and all I had to do was place my hands on his smooth, granite face and close my eyes. I relaxed and pushed my shield away from myself to let him see exactly where my mind was.

I had gotten a lot better at letting him see my thoughts, but it still only ever lasted a few minutes because I was always thinking about how much I loved him and wanted him, _all_ of him. That usually made him go and break my concentration with those lips.

Those lips… those sweet wonderful lips-- and then, my shield snapped back into place. It took me less than a tenth of a second to realize it wasn't because Edward's mouth was crushed against mine as I had planned. I opened my eyes to see Edward's smoldering eyes searching me up and down from across the room. Alice had jerked him away, but apparently not before he got a glimpse into my thoughts about his lips. Oops. Well, I guess that had been my intention.

He growled at Alice who had him in a steel hold. She gave him a menacing look and then turned to me with a disappointing one. "Bella, you are not getting out of this by using Edward's weaknesses."

My eyes narrowed at her. "Hmph. Fine."

"Promise you'll be good?" Alice's eyes lost focus and stared into the distance as she searched for the answer herself.

"Promise," I mumbled as I looked at Edward. He was still looking at me hungrily. I would make it up to him later. I hoped this wouldn't last long.

Alice believed me-- probably because she saw I had given up hope of getting out of this-- and let go of him then, giving us both warning glances. Edward walked cautiously toward me, as if he were checking to see if he were in control of his urges.

I wanted to giggle. It reminded me of when I was human and he was testing his control over his thirst. I didn't giggle, however, because I wanted him too, but it would have to wait. My urge burned, and it was _not_ from thirst. Somehow that made his caution not funny at all.

I exhaled sharply, letting out a small hiss, and reached for Edward's hand. I pulled his hand to my face and kissed his palm. "Later," I whispered, and he smiled my favorite smile and reached down to touch it to my forehead.

Nessie was off with Jacob down in La Push for the day. She had been dying for Billy and Charlie to take her fishing and wanted Jacob's company as well. Jacob would follow her anywhere, and Charlie had been more excited than a kid on Christmas morning when he found someone in his family shared his interest in fishing.

When Jacob picked her up before dawn, they were off to pick up Charlie. I thought it was a wonderful idea for her to spend time with Charlie, but Edward wasn't a big fan of leaving Nessie and Jacob alone these days.

Jacob had recently begun thinking of her in a new, romantic way. I didn't like that part either. She was only six, even if nothing about her showed her age. She was wise beyond her years, smarter than me undoubtedly and perhaps even Edward. Nessie appeared as a beautiful, pale, auburn-haired, seventeen year old just like her father. And just like her father, she was my world.

Edward was constantly on edge around Nessie and Jacob, worrying about Jacob's intentions, and Nessie's hormones. He blamed me for that. "You know, Bella, I never thought I would say our daughter is too much like you for my liking, but she is. She is entirely too…" He choked the words, "_sexually aware._"

I laughed before I realized how disturbing knowing this must be for Edward. I decided having a father who can read your mind wasn't going to be much fun for Nessie either. I cringed at the thought of Charlie knowing what I was thinking when I was dating Edward. Poor Edward. I had been shielding Nessie and Jake most of the time for his sanity. The shield takes a little conscious effort on my part and doesn't work past about a mile away. Edward agreed to it but only if I let the shield down occasionally for him to check the "morality of their thoughts," as he had put it.

Just as Alice was about to commence with the torture, the cruel and unusual punishment, the torment, whatever you wanted to call the _party, _Edward froze.

I looked up at him to read his expression, but it twisted into a surprise as he listened to something, someone's thoughts. Then his teeth snapped and his jaw tightened. His eyes widened in shock and he hissed the word, "Werewolf," with immense disgust.

I heard Jake and Nessie outside then. Their hearts were beating fast. Was Jacob's heartbeat always that fast? Nessie's was always extremely fast, like a hummingbird, but even it seemed to beat at a quicker pace. Nessie entered the living room with shock on her face that I assumed wasn't due to the decorations. Edward rushed to her side and pulled her to him, holding her tight, anger and worry now visible across his face.

I tried to put everything together: Edward's reactions, Nessie's expression, Edward calling Jacob a "werewolf."

Edward and Jacob had been on good terms except for his attraction to Nessie and had even become friends. They didn't use derogatory terms for one another anymore, and I thought it rude for Edward to refer to Jacob that way.

What could make Edward refer to Jacob like that? Nothing would make Edward that angry and that concerned for Nessie unless… No! No! _No! _That werewolf did not lay a hand on my daughter! I was waiting to pounce when Jacob entered the room seconds later, but I waited on Edward to attack him first.

Jacob walked in the door and his eyes immediately met Edward's. Jacob looked worried. Good. He should be worried, _really_ worried. I swallowed back the venom in my mouth and moved to the other side of my daughter.

Edward confronted Jacob at last. "Jacob, what happened?" He was awfully calm with his question, and I wondered why Jacob was still breathing.

"I don't know. The sun hadn't been up long and we had just gotten to La Push with Charlie when I heard howling from the woods. I ran to the woods and phased to ask Sam what was wrong. Paul and Jared were doing rounds before dawn when they caught a new scent. Jared wanted to go find Sam and a few others before pursuing, but Paul took off.

"They came across a creature that stood like a man, a giant, but had the features of a wolf. Its eyes were… the entire eye… the whole eye was black as coal. It had fangs at least half a foot long. Its jowls dripped with saliva and… blood. It had claws on its… its _hands. _It ran from them, but Paul and Jared ran from it too. Even Paul ran from it… he was afraid.

"They ran back to Sam's place and told him what they'd found. They were too afraid to howl in case the creature understood. They all went back to the woods to find where the blood would lead. Sam realized the creature must be an actual _werewolf_ . We remembered you telling the old vampires that we weren't really werewolves. We remembered you calling them 'Children of the Moon' and decided it would be safe enough to howl when the sun was up. I came to tell you what we've seen."

Werewolf. _Werewolf._ There was a real, live werewolf here, in Forks. I remembered what little information Edward had told us about werewolves: "_The true Children of the Moon rarely move in packs, and they are never much in control of themselves…Caius had them hunted into near extinction." _[SM, BD]

The picture Jacob painted of the creature seemed vile enough to me, and for the second time today my knees would have felt weak if they could. Happy Quarter-of-a-Century Birthday to me.

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**AN: Ok, so that's my first chapter. I have my ideas worked out as to where I want this to go, but it may take me a while to actually get it written and posted and all that because of school. I have several reservations about writing this. First, I really, really, really hope that Stephenie Meyer will eventually take it upon herself to write after Breaking Dawn. It makes me cautious to write something just to hope she comes up with something a hundred times better, but I just can't help it. Second, I am nervous about making Nessie older. In BD, she doesn't have much dialogue. She was so young, and we didn't get any real hints into her personality. So, giving her lines and a mind is going to be hard for me because I want to stay as true to the characters as I can. It doesn't bother me at all to come up with the werewolves. I could make them pink and purple with polka dots if I wanted to and not feel bad about it. Not too bad, anyway. **

**Anyway, leave me a review if you read it! Let me know what you think. Keep in mind this is my first go at this! Thanks!**


	2. Bad Blood

**A/N: Here's the next installment! Oh, and all things Twilight belong to Stephenie Meyer, of course. She's the genius. I'm just weird.**

Chapter 2: "Bad Blood"

We all stood in silence for one very long moment. Nobody would move, let alone speak. What would we do? What could we do? Why was it here? Werewolf? Why Forks? Is there some "Mythological Creatures Welcome Here" sign on the highway that I wasn't aware of? There were so many questions. I didn't know where to start. Even my spacious mind couldn't wrap around it. It could appreciate the coincidence of a werewolf sighting in a town where a decent percentage of the population consisted of vampires other supernatural wolves, however.

Emmett was the first to rediscover his tongue. "So… do we kill it?"

Rosalie growled but was interrupted by Carlisle. "I don't think that's a good idea. We don't know what it wants or even if it is a werewolf."

"Carlisle, you heard the description, and I saw the images in Jacob's head. It is identical to the one in your memory. I can reassure you that it is most definitely a werewolf. I saw the same image in the mind of Victoria years ago when she thought of the one she and James tracked across Siberia. She thought Seth was one. They have differences, but the similarities are there as well," Edward said. "What do we do?" He looked up with a hint of worry in his eyes.

"Well, we cannot afford to be rash where a werewolf is concerned. We do not know much about their kind. I've only seen one once during my stay with the Volturi centuries ago. I only know general information about them, not nearly enough to chance a fight." Carlisle pulled Esme closer to him.

"I can't see them! I'm trying, but I don't get anything that makes sense… just blurry chaos and the moon." Alice settled on the floor to hug her knees and concentrate harder. Jasper reassuringly touched her shoulder and moved to stand protectively behind her.

Edward ran out of the room to return half a second later with a calendar in his hands. "The next full moon is exactly a month away on October twelfth. They won't attack before then, right?"

"I don't think so. The Volturi believed each phase of the moon brought varying levels of strength for their kind but they are only wolves on a full moon," Carlisle replied.

"Oh, well maybe it'll be gone by then. A month is more than enough time for it to leave," Esme offered, trying to sound hopeful.

Jasper was the next to speak. "No, it saw the other wolves. It won't just leave without knowing that it's safe and won't be hunted down. Werewolves are extremely cautious creatures who believe in self preservation above all else. It won't just leave."

We all stared questioningly at Jasper. He continued, "Maria knew of a few werewolves. It was a story she told me once. Some of her acquaintances ran across two werewolves on a full moon in South America. They described the creatures just as Jacob did. They didn't believe the werewolves had seen them. They told Maria their story but were killed upon the next full moon. Maria left for Mexico shortly after. The following full moon the other vampires in the area were killed. Maria believed if she hadn't left, they would have killed her too.

"Normal protocol for coming across a werewolf is to track, kill, and report it to the Volturi. Maria did not report it because she was about to start her army of newborns and didn't want the Volturi around. I believe she had more to tell of her story, but after I openly expressed my disapproval of not reporting the werewolves, she declined in finishing. It goes without saying that I do _not_ think the best thing for us to do is report this to the Volturi. Their involvement is not safe for Nessie or the rest of us. We'll have to take care of this ourselves. The Volturi cannot be trusted. They would find us in some wrong here."

Edward nodded. "Jasper is right. It wouldn't be wise to inform the Volturi, and if he's right about their desire of safety, then it would also be unwise not to do this ourselves."

I shuddered. Life had been peaceful since the Volturi's last visit when they came with intentions to kill my daughter and acquire my husband and sister for the guard. We definitely couldn't tell them about this. None of us trusted them enough. But the thought of having to _do this ourselves,_ and not knowing exactly what _this_ was, was horrifying.

"We don't know what it's capable of or where to find it. There could be more than one if what Maria told Jasper is true about there being two of them together. This is something we know little about. We need more information before we pursue this. Jacob, do you think you could find out what Sam found in the woods? Maybe that would be a starting point." Carlisle was always the voice of reason.

Jacob nodded and ran outside to talk to Sam. While he was gone, I noticed Nessie. She stood there silent with tears filling her eyes. I grabbed her hand in a gesture that I hoped was comforting. She forced a smile. Edward and Carlisle seemed to have a private conversation. Alice was still on the floor, rubbing her temples in hopes to see something significant, when she jumped up. "Jazz! Why do I see you going to find Maria?"

"Alice, she is our only source into werewolves other than the Volturi. I know there was more to her story than she told me. If I could just find out everything she knows, we might know more of what we're up against. We need information, and she's our only lead."

Alice seemed upset by the idea of Jasper seeing Maria and going to the south; we all were. She closed her eyes to concentrate on him. She opened them and Edward met her gaze carefully, infinitesimally nodding his head before he spoke. "Jasper, I would like to go with you and Alice when you go. Maria is our only way to find the answers we need, but she is dangerous. It would be safer to have a psychic as well as a mind reader along for the ride, so to speak." Jasper hesitantly agreed to this.

I gasped. I couldn't let Edward go south to hunt down a ruthless vampire to question her about killing werewolves. That was too much. This was too much. No, Edward wasn't going anywhere without me, especially somewhere dangerous. But what about Nessie? She couldn't go with us. That much was clear. How could I leave her behind with a werewolf around? Suddenly, I felt a wave of calm from Jasper.

Edward reached up to touch his palm to my cheek as his troubled eyes searched mine. I touched my hand to his face too and let go of my shield. I showed him my anxiety about finding Maria and my worry about leaving Nessie. I showed him I wasn't able to let him go without me, that he was my everything. He shook his head slightly and bent to lightly kiss my lips. He stepped back and grimaced toward the door. "They found the source of the blood."

Jacob ran in then. "Carlisle, they found a dead human a few miles from where they spotted the werewolf. Do you think you could examine the body? We're not real sure where to go from here. I mean we could call Charlie, but I don't know if getting law enforcement involved is a good idea, even if it is Charlie."

"No Charlie," I objected. "We'll do _this_ ourselves and leave him and the rest of the town out of it. It's not safe."

"I'll get my things." Carlisle ran to his office and returned with his black bag.

I looked around the room at the faces of my family. Everyone seemed worried except for Emmett. He was as collected as ever and seemed undisturbed by the idea of a werewolf in Forks. From his expression, you would think we were discussing fairies or unicorns or some other more pleasant mythological creature instead of a werewolf. The way things were going I figured if they existed, they too would someday find their way to Forks.

I had to admit I was worried, but maybe not as worried as I should be. It was hard to believe there was something out there more dangerous than us Cullens and Quileute _shape shifters._ We always referred to them as werewolves even when we knew they weren't, but now it just felt wrong to call them that-- an insult. I was more worried about our visit to the south. I was worried about Renesmee because she seemed the most shaken. She was still on the verge of tears and the usual flush in her cheeks had disappeared. She was as pale as a vampire. She wasn't like a vampire, though. She was just as durable, yes, but her heart beats. None of us knew the weaknesses of a half-mortal, and we weren't willing to find out.

We all ran to La Push to get a look at the body and catch the scent of the werewolf. Esme and Seth Clearwater stayed with Nessie on the beach where they met Charlie and Billy. Charlie was confused when Nessie and Jacob had run off earlier, but Billy told him he was better off not asking. Instead, he was intent on telling Nessie about his almost big catch this morning. I watched her carefully as I hesitated by the woods.

"Bella, she'll be fine. It's day time, and Esme and Seth are there. She'll only be in danger of hearing about the one that got away from Charlie." Edward smirked.

If he could make a joke about this, then I decided she must be safe. Jacob was worried too. His eyes met mine for a moment, and I could see my own distress mirrored there. Even as a wolf, I saw his worry just as plainly as if he stood human in front of me. I smiled encouragingly, and we ran to catch up with the others.

I knew we were getting close to the body from the burn in my throat. I smelt blood. I tasted blood on the air. When we came upon the body, I realized something was off. Something smelt _wrong._ This blood had gone bad. That wasn't fresh human blood spilled on the ground before me. No, it had an almost normal smell with just a hint of something stronger, metallic but not iron. Carlisle examined the body and took a sample of the ruined blood. He laid his top shirt across the midsection, and for the first time, I noticed the body was naked.

"I don't recognize this man. We may never know who he is since he lacks identification or anything else. There are two unique puncture wounds on the neck that severed the carotid artery. Paul and Jared must have frightened the werewolf because there is so much blood left. It's hard to imagine he was finished with his victim. The blood smells highly unusual. There's something in it. Maybe that's what attracted the werewolf to him. Maybe it's a drug I've never encountered. I won't know until I've tested it. His irises are an unusual light blue color. I don't know what to make of it.

"I don't understand why the man is unclothed. That's strange," Carlisle thought aloud. "I know little about werewolves, and I don't know exactly how they transform humans, but I don't think we can take the chance of this poor man becoming a werewolf. The only way to kill one is similar to our own death, but instead of burning the pieces, they are to be buried at different locations miles apart from one another. They say the full moon cures all wounds for werewolves, as well as death. I don't relish in the thought of dismembering a human being and not allowing him proper burial, but we must be cautious."

Sam's pack followed Carlisle's orders and buried the man's limbs, torso, and head in various places between La Push and Seattle. Jacob went back to the beach to rescue Nessie from fishing stories. Emmett and Rosalie set off to follow the werewolf's trail with a few of the other Quileute wolves. Esme rejoined the rest of us on our return home to discuss our venture south.

"Alice, are you sure it's really safe to go find Maria? I don't like the idea of you all going to such an uncivilized place," Esme worried.

Alice's eyes glazed to check again before she answered. "Yes, we'll be fine. The four of us will be able to handle ourselves. Don't worry."

"Four?" Jasper and Carlisle asked simultaneously. Esme just nodded in understanding. She knew I would go.

"Yes, four. I just can't stay behind. What if something happened?" I was panicking. I loved Edward too much to risk it. "What if something happened to you?" I was only looking at him now. He wrapped his arms around me and crushed me into a hug, rubbing his hands down my hair and back to soothe me. Jasper calmed me, too.

"We'll be fine, Bella. I've seen it. You don't have to worry. Edward is coming as a precaution. There's no need for anybody to worry about us going south. We'll be back before anyone misses us. But I am glad you're coming! You've never been to Mexico. It's such a beautiful place. You'll love it! Well, except for the whole searching down a vampire thing…" Alice tried to tame everyone's worries, but it didn't really help mine.

"And here? Will it be safe here?" I asked her.

"I've been concentrating on that. I can't see much about the werewolves, but I don't think they're a complete blind spot like the other wolves. I can see blurs of images that I can't make out. It's not something I'm familiar with, but I _think_ it will be safe. Nessie will be fine here with everyone," Alice answered

"The werewolves are only dangerous on a full moon, right? And we have a month until then?" I asked Carlisle.

"Well, I'm not entirely certain. The Volturi felt they were _most_ dangerous on a full moon because they were wolves then, and like I said the full moon heals them completely. It makes sense with what Jasper said. It could explain why the werewolves only attacked Maria's friends on a full moon and not before."

"Bella, chill. Nessie will be safe. One measly werewolf or two, or three, or whatever is not a match for me on a full moon much less a crescent moon. Relax. Have fun in Mexico! Just don't eat the worm!" Emmett smiled from ear to ear as he and Rosalie walked in the room.

Rosalie rolled her eyes at Emmett before she spoke. "We followed the trail. It ended near the road where there was a car parked. I didn't know werewolves had cars. From what I could tell about the tire tracks, they're driving a three-quarter ton, four wheel drive SUV with about a one-hundred and thirty inch wheelbase. I would venture a guess that it's GM made, probably a Chevrolet Suburban." She shrugged.

I stood in shock and awe. I didn't know if it was from the fact that the werewolf got away on four wheels or that Rosalie could look at the tracks of those wheels and know the exact model of the get-away car. I secretly wondered if she was going to "venture a guess" at the color and year too.

"Well, that's interesting" was all Carlisle could say, and nobody else seemed to have anything more to add. Werewolves have cars. Huh. Well, why not? Vampires have cars. Vampires have too many cars, actually. The newest addition to the Cullen garage, Nessie's electric blue Lamborghini, was a roaring, revving testament to that.

We worked out the details for our trip to Mexico. We would leave tonight just after midnight on foot to Monterrey. Alice said we would find Maria there. She assured us there would be cloud cover over most of the southwest, so it would be safe to travel in the day. This way we would arrive in Mexico just after sundown, giving us all night to find and question Maria.

Nessie and Jacob arrived home before dark. She seemed in better spirits after spending the afternoon with Jacob. He was always able to cheer her up, and for that, I was grateful. We told her of our plans for Mexico. She tried her hardest not to look worried and to reassure me. "Don't worry about us, Mom. I'll be just fine with Carlisle and Uncle Emmett and _this_ wolf here." She playfully punched Jacob's shoulder and giggled. He winced from the blow ever so slightly but smiled at her in return.

"Yeah, Bells. I'll keep everybody in line here, especially this one." Jacob poked Nessie's side and grinned. I knew he wouldn't leave the vicinity of the Cullen house while we were gone and probably not until this whole werewolf issue was resolved. He wasn't going to risk _his_ Renesmee. They settled down in the living room to watch the new romantic comedy Nessie wanted to see. Jacob really would do anything for her: from standing up to the Volturi guard, to facing a werewolf, to sitting through two hours of a generic teenage romance featuring cliché relationship obstacles. Those movies didn't know a thing about obstacles in a relationship. None of those mortal teenage girls ever fell in love with century-old immortal vampires.

Edward and I headed back to our cottage for a while. It felt like we'd had no time to ourselves all day, and it had been a _very_ long day. I needed to be with Edward. I needed to talk to him, to hear his velvet voice. I needed to hold him and touch him. I always needed Edward. As soon as we were inside, he scooped me up into an iron-tight hug. He held me like that for a while before planting kisses from my throat to my forehead.

He relaxed his grip on me to take a step back and study my eyes. I must've looked worried because he said, "Bella, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to choose between going away with me and staying here with Nessie. I agreed to go because of Alice's vision."

"It's going to be okay, Edward. I'll always go with you, always. But what did Alice see?" I was curious. I had noticed their wordless interaction earlier.

He touched his lips to my cheek twice before he sighed. "She saw that if she and Jasper went alone, Maria would attack her, and Jasper would get hurt trying to protect her. You see, years ago Maria found us in Calgary. She didn't think highly of our way of life or Alice. Alice is more to Jasper than Maria ever was. It's true Maria never really looked at Jasper as a mate, but he looked up to her with adoration. She enjoyed that and always hoped Jasper would eventually return to her. Maria's mind is resentful and I know of her hatred for Alice," He growled. "Jasper asked her to keep her distance from then on."

"Alice knew Jasper was resolved on going, and if he went alone, he would slip up. She asked me to go. When I agreed, she saw that we shouldbe relatively out of harm's way. With you there also, this should be easy, really." His tone was convincing, but his eyes made me think there was more to this story. I just nodded.

I understood. Alice was the reason Jasper was so content with this vegetarian lifestyle. Maria blamed her for that, and Jasper would never let harm come to Alice. I could also see that Jasper would be compelled to veer from our diet after visiting his old "hunting" grounds if he were alone. Edward was going along to protect our family, and I was going along to protect my sanity.

"Does Jasper know this?" I asked.

"Not exactly. He suspects Alice saw him giving into his thirst and that we're going with them to help prevent that. We've also led him to believe that you've always wanted to visit Mexico in order to lessen his worry and guilt."

"I see. Well, I _have_ never been to Mexico. I suppose it's good he doesn't know more than that. We need that information, Edward. We have to figure out what we're dealing with here."

"I know, love. We'll find out and take care of this. Things will go back to normal and next year we'll all be off to Dartmouth like we planned. Carlisle will take up that position at the hospital there and Esme will remodel a house for us," Edward promised.

Our lives would resume. We all planned to attend Dartmouth when Nessie was finished growing. Edward was ecstatic about Nessie and I going to college. Of course, I went to J. Jenks to falsify her high school diploma. Jacob was even going to attend a community college nearby, much to Edward's dislike. Carlisle had left his position at the hospital in Forks a few years back because of his never increasing "age" and taken a job at a hospital in Portland. He was excited to lessen his commute to work again even though he ran to the hospital most days.

We would let Forks in on the truth about Dartmouth. Right now, they believed Carlisle and Esme lived in Portland and the rest of us were taking a few years off from school to travel the world. If we were ever seen in town, we used the story of visiting Charlie. If Renesmee was ever seen, she was just a friend we had met in our travels. We managed to stay in the shadows most of the time though.

There would be life after the werewolf. We would go back to our normal, abnormal ways. It had only been a day and already I was looking forward to that. I sighed.

Edward was deep in thought. His voice was light when he spoke, thoughtful. "Do you know what worries me most about us going to Mexico?"

I was confused. "No, what?"

"Jacob. He has no intentions of letting Nessie out of his sight. He is going to be here until she falls asleep and back before she awakes. I'm going to have to talk to Carlisle and Emmett about this." He seemed sincerely concerned.

I laughed. "Edward, I know how you feel, but Jacob just wants to make sure she's safe. We can't argue with him there. Although, you should probably have Carlisle watch her a little closely just in case. But Emmett would probably have too much fun picking on them or _trying_ to scare Jacob if you ask for his assistance." I laughed again at that. It would be entertaining, embarrassing for Nessie, but entertaining nonetheless.

Edward smiled crookedly and said, "Bella, I love your laugh. It's so beautiful. _You_ are so beautiful. I love you infinitely more every second of everyday. I would have never thought that possible, but it's true." He pulled his face to mine and pressed his mouth urgently to my lips. He forced himself away after a few minutes and raised an eyebrow to ask, "Now, what do you say we make use of the few hours we have before we leave?"

"Stop reading my mind!" I joked and dragged him off to the big white bed.

**A/N: Once again, I'm trying to stay true to the beloved characters. I hope I'm doing okay. Oh, and if you're wondering "Why Maria?" Well, she interests me. She's the only vampire (that comes to mind) that played a large part in somebody's life that we never actually met in the books. I want to meet her and I figure she can be informative and also quite evil. And yes, I'm just going to make up my own little werewolf mythology, so if it doesn't align with common knowledge of werewolves, I'm okay with it.**

**Please Review.. Thumbs up? Down? Shrug? Let me know!**


	3. Don't Eat the Worm

**A/N: I don't own Twilight or everybody's favorite vampires, but Stephenie Meyer does. The chapter title is a joke. I'm aware they wouldn't actually drink the tequila, but it was Emmett's idea. Maybe it's just me that associates Mexico with tequila. Eh. Oh well. **

Chapter 3: "Don't Eat the Worm!"

We said our goodbyes just before midnight. Rosalie hugged us all and gave us a parting smile. Emmett mussed Edward's hair, punched Jasper in the stomach, threw Alice over his shoulder, and swung me around in a circle like a rag doll. Carlisle kissed mine and Alice's foreheads and placed a supportive hand on the shoulders of Edward and Jasper. Esme hugged us nervously. Jacob gave me a bear hug and waved to the others. Edward smiled. Alice frowned, "Bella, now you smell like a dog. No offense, Jacob. At least running will get the smell out." Jacob laughed evilly and wrapped a protesting Alice up in a hug too, lifting her two feet off the floor. She crinkled her nose and smiled in spite of herself.

Nessie had fallen asleep but woke up to see us off. She jumped on Jasper's back and planted a kiss on his cheek, giggling all the while. She picked Alice up and kissed both her cheeks. Alice pouted, "Why does everybody have to pick me up? Really, people, is it so hard just to leave me on the ground?" We all laughed, including Alice.

Nessie jumped into her father's arms and kissed his forehead. She was teary-eyed when she got to me. She kissed me and reminded me not to worry. Then she ran to Jacob's side to hold his hand, and his face lit up. Edward pretended not to notice. He had talked to Carlisle and the family about keeping an eye on Nessie and Jacob. I knew Jake would behave. As for Nessie, well, she was _my_ daughter after all, but I trusted Jacob with her.

We ran straight to Monterrey. It was my longest running trip since I had become a vampire. I half expected to get tired at some point even though I should've known better. There were no flights heading out soon enough, so we decided to run. Alice said the next few days would be overcast or stormy along our route. Her forecast was accurate as ever. The sun was only a problem for about five minutes somewhere east of Salt Lake City, but we were able to maneuver through shade. Alice's weather predictions would put any meteorologist to shame, and I laughed when I pictured her as a weather girl.

We crossed the border unseen and got to the outskirts of Monterrey just after dark. We stopped there for Alice to concentrate and to work out strategy.

"Maria has created three newborns," Alice said. Jasper and I looked surprise, but I could see Edward wasn't. He had known, and that's why I didn't fully believe him when he said this was going to be easy. "Two are off hunting. One is with her. We can't all go together or Maria will feel threatened. Jasper and Bella should go. She doesn't know Bella and she'll be intrigued by her. She isn't fond of me or Edward, so we will just hang back unless you need us. It _should_ be safe," Alice continued.

Edward didn't like this idea, but he agreed reluctantly. "Bella, I'll be within hearing distance of Jasper and Maria's thoughts. If anything feels the least bit off, I will come. If Alice sees anything remotely dangerous, I will come," Edward promised. Even though we were physical equals now, he was still overly protective of me-- still my savior. I smiled and placed my hands on either side of his face to reassure him before I kissed him lightly. Well, _I_ meant for the kiss to be light. He had other plans. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me tightly to him to kiss me with an igniting passion. When he finally pulled away, I was having a hard time concentrating on the task at hand.

"Focus, Bella. We won't be gone long," Jasper reminded me.

"Right," I smiled at Alice and Edward before we ran to the edge of some trees. Edward held me to him and kissed my forehead as Jasper stared into Alice's ever-foreseeing eyes. This was the spot Edward and Alice would wait. She spoke, "Follow that alleyway to the main street and turn right. You'll come across her scent and it will lead you to her."

I walked at a human pace beside a very stiff Jasper. He seemed nervous. Actually, he was emanating nervousness; I started to feel it too. "Jasper, don't worry. We'll be in and out in no time, and you'll never have to see her again. I am sorry you have to do this."

He smiled slightly. "I'm making you nervous. I apologize. I'll try to better control my emotions." We continued walking to the main street where I immediately caught the trail of an immortal. We followed the scent to a small square stucco building. The roof was flat, and the walls were terracotta colored with chipped paint. The royal blue wooden double doors were nearly as tall as the flat itself, and they too wore chipped paint. I could make out a faint warm glow-- reminiscent of fire-- dancing through the cracks of the doors. Despite the building's rather weathered appearance, there was something oddly at home about it. I felt more at ease. Maybe Maria wasn't so bad.

Jasper walked at mortal speed to the doorway while I stood a few feet behind. I knew they would've heard us approach, but no one came to answer the door. We waited for a moment before Jasper spoke. "Maria? It's Jasper Whitlock." Almost immediately the doors flew open to show a young vampire, clearly brand new. I could tell from the deep red color of his irises. His pallid skin had an olive undertone, his hair jet black, and his features appeared Mexican.

The young vampire gestured in a surprisingly welcome manner for us to enter. His tone was contrastingly rude through a thick accent, and he offered no introduction. "This way."

I became anxious of my own accord upon entering the flat. The walls were bare, chipped stucco. The only glow came from the small fireplace, although none of us needed either the light or the heat. Jasper seemed calm, and I deduced if neither Edward nor Alice had busted in yet, we must be safe for the moment. We walked into another room. I followed Jasper, and the newborn followed me, studying our every move. When we turned the corner, I caught my first glimpse of the infamous Maria. She was small and brunette perched expectantly in a red crushed-velvet wingback chair. Her face held no expression, but her eyes lingered on Jasper as if remembering something lifetimes ago. Her dark crimson eyes flickered to me and confusion and curiosity crossed her features before she smiled slyly. Alice was right. I intrigued her.

Her attention swayed back to Jasper as she stood to pace slowly in front of him. "Jasper, my oldest companion, to what do I owe the… pleasure… of your visit?" Her eyes flickered to me and then back to him.

"Hello, Maria. I came to ask of you a favor. I would like to acquire some knowledge that you may have," Jasper spoke calmly, formally, and precisely to the point. He did not like being here.

"Ah, Jasper. All business? So soon? You just arrived. I will most certainly help you in anyway I can. But come. Let us talk as old acquaintances. We have no need for hurry," Maria coaxed silkily. Jasper nodded although it was almost a bow, no doubt a reaction from his past life with Maria.

She smiled and put a thin finger to her lips as she spoke, still pacing and deep in thought. "Now, do tell me; who is this fantastic creature with you?"

Fantastic? Creature? I chose to take this as a compliment, but I was a little offended. I thought it best to answer for myself. "Bella. Bella Cullen. I've joined Jasper's family."

She tightened her eyes a nearly imperceptible amount. Jasper apologized immediately. "Of course, Maria. I seem to have lost my manners. Bella is the newest member of our family. She is with my brother Edward."

"Ah, I see. Yes, _Edward_." She said his name in distaste, and I was forced to suppress the growl building in my chest. Maria placed her arms behind her back and her expression became amused before she turned to me "Bella, there is something special about you. I can tell. You would make for an exquisite soldier. Perhaps, even better than my prize creation here." She motioned her head in Jasper's direction.

"Oh, hardly. Jasper is quite the phenomenal military expert," I replied.

She ceased her pacing immediately and shook her head. Her newborn joined her side a second later. "Yes, he's quite the creation isn't he? I saw in him a strong fighter. I've been searching ever since to find one superior or at least equal. I have had no success, but you have potential. It's a rather interesting coincidence that the one vampire that could be Jasper's equal was brought to my attention by none other than Jasper, himself." She cocked her head to the side as if she were contemplating something.

Jasper took a backward step to stand beside me and sent a wave of calm throughout the room. "Maria, if you don't mind. There are a few questions I would like to get to. You told me a story once about an encounter friends of yours had with a couple of werewolves. You only told me part of the story. Would you mind filling in the gaps?" Jasper asked.

Maria looked extremely curious. "Why Jasper, I wasn't expecting this of your favor. I didn't tell you all of it before because of your disgust in me breaking protocol to pursue my own endeavors. I am curious. Why the change of heart--for lack of a better word-- after all these years?"

"A friend of ours nearby ran into a werewolf on the last full moon. We fear it may catch our scent and seek to eliminate us. We would like to know whatever you can tell us," Jasper spoke carefully choosing his words.

Maria stifled a giggle. "Oh, moral Jasper, what would discourage _you_ from following the laws and notifying your mighty Volturi?"

"The Volturi have proved less than helpful to us in the recent past, and we fear their involvement. They seek to acquire much of my family for the guard. We fear any refusal to join would result in some dire consequence," Jasper hesitantly answered her question.

Maria seemed to ponder that for a moment before responding. "We can't have that now can we? I will tell you what I know of werewolves. It's the least I can do after our last encounter. I told you of the vampires that saw the two werewolves one full moon. They were feeding on a human and the vampires smelt the blood. That was what drew them to the scene. They were in the shadows and certain they had not been discovered. You also know they died the next full moon and any vampire in the vicinity, the next.

"You do not know that after sunup they followed the werewolves' scent back to a barn in the woods. They peeked through the cracks and saw five sleeping humans. They were confused at first. They smelt the blood from the woods and saw one of the "humans" had the blood on his face. The five in the barn smelt human. They could smell nothing suggesting otherwise about them, but they knew they must be the werewolves. The vampires left but returned to the barn a few weeks later. They watched the five and saw that they looked slightly stronger than human then. Their eyes were unnaturally dark blue.

"I had heard that werewolves become stronger closer to a full moon, but I had also heard they traveled alone and not in packs. The vampires curiosity and inability to act on the vile creatures while they were seemingly human ultimately cost them their lives. The werewolves killed any vampire they could find the next full moon to cover their tracks, but I was already gone. I had a bad feeling about the situation. They were able to kill six vampires on that full moon with no casualties of their own," Maria looked toward me deep in thought. "That's all I know."

I was holding my breath. Werewolves had packs. They seemed and smelt human, so we weren't going to be able to pick them out in a crowd. They hated vampires enough to kill any one that came in their way. They killed _six_ vampires, but there were only _five_ of them. This had me feel my family's panic. We could outnumber them, and they could still kill us all. By how many would we have to outnumber them in order for none of us to die? How many would we lose? Jasper calmed me down, and I was grateful. This was not the time for a vampire panic attack.

"Thank you, Maria. You've been more than informative. We appreciate your knowledge. It will help us out, but we should really be getting back home. We have much to consider," Jasper said.

"Jasper, my old accomplice! It has been too long and this has been too short. You mustn't leave just yet. I am still morbidly curious about your sister-in-law here. She's quite intriguing. Oh, Bella, how I would love to keep you! You would be a great asset. Do stay," Maria chimed. Her newborn stepped forward and crouched slightly. Maria grinned evilly and Jasper growled. I didn't like this.

"Maria, thank you for sharing what you know with us. It may very well save our lives, but we really must get back home. You've been too kind, really. I feel so rude to leave this quickly, but the others are waiting for our return," I spoke sweetly, hoping to pacify her.

Her expression hardened and then her lips curved up in that evil grin. "Yes. Save your lives. I do not wish death on you, dear Jasper." She turned to him and her smile fell. "But you surround yourself with more potential than I've ever known. Your family is very talented, what with this one here and your psychic wife, and I cannot very well have that, now can I?" I stiffened at her rhetoric.

Before anyone could reply, I heard someone moving at alarming speed outside, felt the building rumble as the door slammed open, and smelt my favorite sweet smell. Edward was immediately at my side with a threatening hiss escaping his lips. "And his mind-reading brother. You will not hurt my wife," Edward growled. I saw Alice rush through the door to stand beside Jasper.

"A mind reader? I always knew you were gifted as well, Edward. It's impressive. Then you know my intention is not to hurt _your_ wife," Maria said.

Edward, Jasper, and I hissed at her emphasis of "your." Jasper and I didn't need to read minds to know she meant Alice. Edward said, "No, your intention is quite clear. You seek to hurt Jasper for leaving you before you had the chance to kill him and take away that option. You want to take his happiness and my sister. You will _not_ hurt my brother or sister, either."

The newborn crouched, ready to spring, and Edward did the same. Jasper calmed the room and spoke. "Maria, we'll be going now. Do not contact me or my family. You will _never_ get to my wife or my sister. Never. You will never deserve the company of these two amazing women. Alice is my life. This life you resent me for is the best part of my existence. I am a changed man and for the better. Goodbye."

"Better?" Maria scoffed. "You have become weak, Jasper Whitlock, or should I say Hale? Being a 'vegetarian' does not suit you. You are not meeting your potential. Think of the possibilities, Jasper. With a coven as powerful as yours, think of what we could accomplish. You must still contain some remembrance of your former military self."

Jasper hissed, "Power does not equate happiness. I would change nothing of my life now. It is complete. Let us go in peace."

Alice turned to leave first, still silent. I turned to follow with Edward behind me. Jasper backed out of the room never letting his eyes part from Maria. We got outside and I let out a sigh of relief. We had gotten out unscathed with the information we came for. Maria wouldn't come after us. We outnumbered her, and she did not have a death wish. Alice's eyes were unfocused and Edward watched my face while Jasper watched the door. Simultaneously, Edward and Alice said, "Run." We all took off in the direction we came without question.

We ran a few miles away and stopped. Suddenly I was aware we weren't alone and smelt an unfamiliar vampire scent. Then I saw two approaching figures, both with bright red eyes. Newborns. Maria's newborns were on their way back after hunting. They were in front of us in an instant growling fiercely. Everyone crouched and growled in response.

The tallest newborn spoke with a heavy accent, "What do we have here? Light-eyed vampires? We are not to allow any vampires within the city. These are our hunting grounds."

Edward spoke, "We are just passing through, I assure you. We have no interest in your type of hunting. Our eyes are light because our diet consists of the blood of animals, not humans. We do not seek trouble. We will leave now."

The shorter one growled, "No. we will not allow you to pass through our city without consequence. This is our city. Your interests are no matter to us." And just like that, he sprang for Edward.

Edward was prepared, and their fight began. Jasper jumped for the other newborn. I stood frozen and unable to react. I was terrified. I knew all about newborn strength and fighting abilities from the Seattle army and my own experiences. I had seen Edward fight a much more experienced vampire when he killed Victoria right in front of my eyes. That was the only time I've ever really seen Edward fight, and it was a human memory seen through uncomprehending human eyes. All I remember seeing when he fought Victoria was a deadly dance consisting of blurred movements too fast for my mortal eyes to really see.

I saw everything now. Through infallible vision it was impossible to miss every horrifying move and every powerful blow. I watched the love and reason of my existence fight a stronger vampire. Edward foresaw every instinctual move the newborn made. Edward was faster and always a step ahead. He planted a kick square in the newborn's chest and the young immortal flew into a tree twenty feet away. Edward immediately went to him and ripped off his right arm with a shrieking tear. The newborn lunged for Edward and I was snapped out of my reverie. I was about to take a step forward when Alice put a hand on my arm.

"Don't, Bella. It's better if we don't interfere. Trust me. They'll be fine," she said. I never took my eyes off Edward. After a few minutes, he delivered another blow, removing the newborn's left arm. The newborn could no longer crush Edward, but he refused to give up. Edward kicked the young vampire's left knee and the lower leg flew to the side. The newborn stopped then to accept his death, but Edward didn't precede. I realized then that Jasper wasn't continuing either, and he too had dismembered the other new vampire.

"Go. Leave. Maria is not who you think. She has no interest in you. We'll let you live, but think about your options," Jasper warned. Both newborns nodded and we turned to leave.

We ran faster than we had on the way. I was lost in my thoughts as we ran. Watching Edward fight in clear and vivid detail was wrenching to my dead nerves. I would've cried if I could after seeing all of that. Edward. My Edward. I loved him more than my own life-- more than my own existence. What would I have done if he had gotten hurt or killed? I knew my answer to the latter, though. I would cease to exist. It was almost sunrise and we had just crossed the border when it hit me. I was sure he was fine, but we had been running and I hadn't checked for myself. I stopped. I needed to touch him, hold him, kiss him, love him. I ached for his contact.

He ran past me but turned instantly and came back to me, wrapping his arms around my waist. "Bella! What's wrong?" His eyes were warm and full of concern when I looked up into them. I lost my composure and jumped into his arms. I tied my legs around his waist and my hands in his hair. I forcefully pulled his mouth to mine. I pressed my body tightly to his, reveling in the closeness and kissed him urgently. This kiss would've crushed my skull when I was human. I couldn't get close enough to him. I loved him. I had to search for any sign of injury.

I pulled away, jumped down, and ripped his gray button-up shirt apart to run my hands fervently over his chest, abs, shoulders, and back. I pulled him against me and kissed from the hollow behind his ear, down his throat, across his collarbone, and up the other side. My fingers continued their searching across his smooth marble skin. I jumped on him with enough force to knock us to the ground and my lips met his again.

I realized he was fine and just as flawless as ever. I was relieved, but I couldn't tear myself away from him. I had no intentions of letting go of him anytime soon.

Alice, hand in hand with Jasper, cleared her throat unnecessarily to speak. "Bella, Edward, maybe you should get a room." I looked up to glare at her but Edward moved his lips to my throat. "No, really," she said. "The sun will be up soon and we need to find a place to wait for the storm. I had planned for us to do some sight seeing in Mexico for you, Bella, because there is still cloud cover there…" She trailed off and sighed. "We've still got five hours until the storm will give us shadow to move through the southwest."

Five hours and a hotel room sounded like a blessing to me. I pulled Edward up and we all ran to the nearest hotel to get to our rooms just in time. The hotel wasn't the Cullens' usual luxury, five-star experience, but I couldn't care less. It was a room, and it was private. The room could've been painted purple with pink polka dots and I wouldn't have noticed. All I saw was Edward safely in my arms. I was going to enjoy our remaining time. Our bodies wound together. Yes, I was definitely going to enjoy _this_.

Five hours really is an insignificant amount of time to an immortal. I'm pretty sure even when I was human I would've found the time limit frustrating. We managed to get dressed and join Alice and Jasper only after Alice beat on the door for ten minutes straight, hollering things about having all eternity, being in the middle of a crisis, and getting back to Forks in her still musical voice. Getting back home struck the chord or maybe it was the anxiety I felt certainly courtesy of Jasper.

We ran home under the shelter of the storm and too fast for human sight. Jasper asked if the newborns would heed his warning about Maria. Edward answered, "The tall one will, but the shorter one still has misplaced loyalty in her."

"What made you two decide to intervene and come join us?" I asked.

Edward growled, "Maria was trying to hold you off until her other newborns came back to join her. She knew they wouldn't be gone long. She knew once they got back you would be outnumbered. She was contemplating whether to try and convince you to stay with her or kill you. She wouldn't kill Jasper on purpose, not now. She would much rather see him suffer. That's why when we showed up her mind immediately went to killing Alice. Jasper took control into his own hands years ago when he left. She was planning to kill him to keep him from leaving, but he left first. She is not one to give up power freely."

"Oh," I murmured. "Alice, why didn't you see any of this?" I was curious. Usually her visions were so accurate with the exception of Nessie and mystical wolves.

She sighed clearly disappointed with herself. "I didn't know how Maria would react to you in particular until she met you. I knew she would be interested by anybody new in Jasper's company, but I didn't know the intensity of her interest in you until she met you. Edward wanted to go in then, but I showed him you would be just as safe if we waited and got the information first," she sighed again. "And we ran only to keep the other newborns from joining Maria with a chance to get to us. Fighting those two was the safest option, and the boys are safer to do it without worrying about us," Alice answered the question she undoubtedly saw I would ask next and stuck her tongue out at Jasper.

I only had one more question. "Why did Maria think I had potential like Jasper?"

"Her gift. She gets a feeling about a human or a vampire and their ability to be talented in a fight. She doesn't know what it is you do like Eleazar did, but she can tell the gifted from the non," Edward answered. That explained it. She didn't know I was a shield or any of the particulars of my power. She just knew I had one that could be useful in battle.

We ran back, avoiding heavy conversation from then on. There would be plenty of that when we got home. There was still so much to consider. Werewolves were complicating and endangering our lives more than we had imagined.

We arrived home just after dark to the greetings of our relieved family. Tonight would be a long night of revealing the details of our trip, contemplating, and strategizing.

**A/N: Please review and let me know what you think! **


	4. Super Spy

**A/N: I don't own Twilight. I just love it. This chapter is mostly just kind of a filler leading up to the werewolves. That and I wanted to give Nessie some lines and let Emmett have some fun. **

Chapter 4: Super Spy

We arrived home after midnight to the family standing on the porch along with Jacob. Nessie was asleep upstairs in Edward's room, and I was glad we could discuss this without her. Everyone was relieved to see us home safely and curious to find out what we learned.

We made our way to the dining room table to have our discussion. We told them everything about our discoveries: Maria, the two newborns, and the fight. They all listened intently. Emmett wasn't happy about the fight, or maybe it was just that he missed the fight. Esme was wide-eyed through our whole speech.

"Five werewolves killed six vampires? We won't be able to smell them?" Jacob asked. "Well..." His eyes caught mine and I knew he feared for Nessie.

"Alright, let's look at what we know. We have a little over three weeks to figure everything out. We won't be able to rely on smell to find them. We don't know if there's more than one, but just to be safe we should probably assume it's not alone. We know it's killed a man we didn't recognize. The results on his blood should be back by the beginning of next week. That may help. We know it's driving in a large SUV. It ran from Paul and Jared. Anything else?" Carlisle said.

"I can't see them. I can see fuzz and waiting on the moon. How can I see that? I can't see anything when it comes to Jacob and Nessie. How can I see anything? It doesn't make sense," Alice mentioned.

"Hmm… that's a good question, Alice. We always thought you couldn't see the pack and Nessie because you've never been a shape shifter or a half mortal. You can see humans and vampires because you've had those experiences. I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the werewolves appearing and smelling human," Carlisle offered.

"Maybe. It makes sense, I suppose. Maria also mentioned the werewolves had unnaturally dark blue eyes. Perhaps that's how we can look at someone and tell they're not actually human," Edward reminded us.

"Edward's right. We don't have much to go on. We need to split up and look for what we know. We have to find something," Emmett said.

"Dark blue eyes and an SUV… it'll be like looking for a needle in a haystack. They could be anywhere. We'll need to cover a lot of area," Rosalie said.

"I can't see any specifics, but I don't think it's too far away. I can't really explain it," Alice said. We all agreed to trust her and try near home first.

We needed to know more. We were going on a wild goose chase looking for dark blue eyes in a certain car. We had no idea where to look. We couldn't rely on our sense of smell, and we were virtually clueless. We need more information.

"We need to know who the man in the woods was. Maybe that will give us a clue as to why the werewolves are here in the first place. We need to get a picture and description of him to Charlie. We can get him to contact people and try to figure out who he is."

"Bella's right. Charlie can help. We have to find something else out." Jake was on my side.

"We'll draw a picture and get him to search the Department of Motor Vehicles Database. Good thinking, Bella," Carlisle said.

Edward wrapped his arm around my shoulder and smiled down at me while they began discussing how we were going to search for the werewolves. I wasn't paying attention. There's something we're missing, and I just wanted to think about everything for a moment. Why were the werewolves here? Why did the five werewolves kill all those vampires years ago? Did they hate us that much? It sounded like maybe Hollywood finally got something right with the hatred between our kinds. Why would they hate us? We didn't know the answers, and we so desperately needed them.

My mind kept drifting back to that poor man's body in the woods. I kept thinking of him. Who was he? Why was he here? Why was he naked? What was that smell in his blood? We would know that soon, though. I was lost in thoughts of the man's light blue eyes and the Dracula-like puncture wounds on his neck. I froze. Edward noticed under his arm. "Bella, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Does it occur to anyone else what it looks like the man in the woods died from?" I asked.

Everyone just stared at me, uncomprehending. "What are you saying, love?" Edward asked.

"Okay, maybe since I'm the newest vampire, I can see it. But if anyone else had found his body, it would've looked to them like a vampire killed him. Think about it. Those punctures look like a stereotypical vampire bite straight out of a movie." I was proud of my realization, although it didn't answer any questions and I still felt we were missing something. This realization actually didn't help at all. I frowned.

"That makes sense. The Volturi always said werewolves threatened our secrecy, and they were merely upholding the law by eliminating them. Although, I never really understood, but you're right. It would look like a vampire attack to anyone with an imagination or any Dracula fan," Carlisle nodded.

Edward kissed my temple and smiled. Everyone finished the conversation. Tomorrow, I would take the drawing and description of the man in the woods to Charlie and ask him to check who he was. Jacob would tell Sam and his pack of our plan and what to look for, and we would all split up in pairs and scout the surrounding areas in hopes of some answer.

"What about Nessie? We can't leave her here alone," I reminded them

"I would like for her to go with me," Jacob said.

"No! Absolutely not!" Edward roared.

"There's no danger yet. They're only human right now. We'll all be able to defend ourselves. Nessie will be fine." Jasper sent a wave a calm along with his words.

"Still. Nessie will stay with Bella and I," Edward growled.

"I can protect her more. The werewolves are unfamiliar with us. We have an advantage," Jacob countered.

"Enough. You two shut it. I swear! Nessie will be fine. All four of you go together if you must, but just shut it," Rosalie hissed.

We continued our conversation and preparations until Nessie came downstairs. We told her what we learned, but left out the newborn fight in Mexico. We told her of our plans, and everyone went their separate ways to search for blue eyes and a Suburban. It was going to be a hopeless effort.

Edward sped into town with Jacob and Nessie in the backseat. Edward was tense and worried. I reached my hand to his cheek and held it there. I sighed and forced my shield away from my mind to tell him I loved him. He took my hand in his, kissing my palm several times before he entwined his fingers with mine in his lap. We arrived at the police station quickly as always. Charlie was in his tiny office munching on a donut. I laughed to myself at his cliché breakfast choice.

Nessie ran into give Charlie a hug. She minded her strength well, but I still heard Charlie's breath escape in a hiss upon her embrace. His face lit up at seeing his six year old, fully grown granddaughter. Of course Charlie knew what we were. When he married Sue a few years back, he learned that Seth and Leah were wolves like Jacob as well as the old legends… _all_ of the old legends. He wasn't an ignorant man. Edward said he pieced it all together and knew what we were. He kept it to himself though and never tried to talk to me about it and I was thankful. I wasn't exactly sure the right way to tell my father I wanted to be a vampire all along. He didn't know details but he knew becoming what I am is what saved my life and I was glad he was never impolite to Edward or the rest of the Cullens.

"Bells! Nessie! What do I owe this pleasant surprise to?" Charlie asked.

"Oh, Grandpa! We just couldn't stay away. We just missed you so much!" Nessie pulled him into another, slightly softer hug. "You know, you should really watch what you eat. These donuts are going to clog your arteries. I know Sue wouldn't approve of this. Think of us, Grandpa. We want to keep you as long as we can." She had no problem referencing immortality in so many words. She threw his donuts in the trash and playfully, yet sternly, shook her finger at him. He smiled and nodded his head. He would do whatever Nessie asked of him.

"Actually Dad, we're here on somewhat official business. We have a sketch of a man and were wondering if you could do a search and see what you could find out. We don't know who he is."

"I don't know exactly how much help I'll be. You have to have higher clearance to get much information, but I'll see what I can do," Charlie responded. "I won't even ask why I'm doing this," he mumbled under his breath. He still didn't realize our sensitive hearing.

Nessie didn't hesitate with answering his mumbles though. "That's probably for the best, Grandpa." She was a firm believer in letting him know as much as she could about his family. She knew the danger of saying it outright, so she spent her time with Charlie informing him in riddles or with subtle hints.

He looked a little shocked but recovered nicely as he had every time he realized something new about us over the past few years. He accepted us for what we were and loved us regardless. I was thankful to have him as a father. Nobody could ask for a more understanding father than Charlie. He was a good man, and I was happy he and Sue found each other. They both deserved happiness.

I knew Billy was a little disgruntled at first, but after a few weeks of their dating, he began to realize how happy they both were. I think Billy had a crush on Sue. I felt bad for him. He deserves happiness too. He stays some nights with Sue and Charlie when Jake or Seth or someone can't be around. His diabetes had taken dangerous leaps in the past year. His blood sugar would drop to life threatening levels, and Carlisle insisted he never be left alone for long. We offered our home to him, of course, since none of us needed sleep. Not to mention we could smell any changed in his blood, but he ever so kindly declined. Things were good with the pack and us Cullens, but not _that_ good.

We said our goodbyes to Charlie and hugged him again before we returned to the car. I was a little concerned about leaving Edward and Jacob alone in such a tight space with all the tenseness of the last few days, but when I stepped outside what I heard surprised me. Laughter. Not just any laughter but Edward's laughter came from the car. Well, that's surprising. It was a pleasant surprise though--much better than finding a phased Jacob and vicious Edward rumbling out of the confines of the silver Volvo.

I slipped inside the car and stared at Edward. He rarely laughed out loud and now he was back to his silent chuckles. What was so funny? Apparently, Nessie was thinking the same thing.

"Jacob was telling me about his stay at the house while we were in Mexico, Nessie," Edward said as he began to speed away.

"I did not _tell_ you anything!" Jacob huffed. Oh, Jacob didn't want this known, but why did Edward find something Jacob didn't want us to know funny? I figured whatever Jacob didn't want us to know that pertained to Nessie would evoke the complete opposite emotion in Edward.

I turned to Nessie for an explanation and raised an eyebrow. She began to blush. She definitely inherited that gene from me. I doubt Edward was ever much for showing his embarrassment by trying to turn a color that matched a fire engine. Edward glanced in the rear view mirror and chuckled more when he saw the color stained on Nessie's cheeks.

"Oh, real funny, Dad!" Nessie almost yelled as she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted like a true six year old would. That made me laugh too, which only further egged Edward on. Jacob was even less amused than Nessie.

"Okay, so what happened?" I asked between laughs.

"Emmett!" All three of them shouted at the same time. Nessie said his name with disgust, Jacob's voice held annoyance, and Edward said it in an amused tone. Nobody would offer anymore information. I would just ask Emmett later. He would tell me.

We dropped the subject and headed on our mission--mission impossible. Edward was really the only one who could actually have a chance at finding anything. He would have a better chance at hearing the minds of the werewolves, but they would be having to think about something supernatural for him to realize it. Plus he would have to focus on them at the exact time they thought it. We were on a wild goose chase. Actually I was pretty sure we would have better luck catching a wild goose or finding a needle in a haystack. We did have impeccable vision and immense speed on our side, afterall. Unfortunately those things weren't helpful in finding werewolves in human forms when we knew nothing about them.

Eventually we gave up and went home. Nessie and Jake had fallen asleep in the backseat. I couldn't help but think how cute they looked. Nessie's head rested on his shoulder and his head laid on top of her auburn curls. Nessie's hand was enclosed in Jacob's giant paw between them on the seat. Even as a human, you could only describe Jacob's hand as a paw.

When we pulled up at the house, the family came out to the porch. Emmett then clued me into what exactly he did while we were gone when he ran over and swung the back door open, pulling Jacob out of the car. Jacob was a heavy sleeper but he awoke to Emmett's cold touch, but he didn't seem alarmed, just frustrated. Nessie's head fell to the seat and she awoke with a start. The confused look on her face was priceless but became resolved when she looked up to see her bear of and uncle standing there. She narrowed her eyes at him and stomped out of the car. Emmett just smiled, showing all his gleaming teeth. Jacob trailed off with a defeated posture into the house to get some much needed sleep.

"You know the rules, Jake! You better be in Esme and Carlisle's bed when I make my way upstairs in a few minutes. You know I'll check and you know I'm stealthy. I'm like James Bond with Superman's abilities! I'm Cullen. Emmett Cullen," Emmett called after Jacob and said his name in a perfect imitation of Sean Connery's voice. "Maybe I should paint a giant 'E' on my chest or buy some spandex," he mused mostly to himself, I _think_.

Edward came over and placed a hand on Emmett's shoulder and chuckled quietly to himself again. What had Emmett done to those two while we were gone?

"Emmett--," Edward began but was cut short.

"It's okay, Edward. No need to thank me. It's all in a day's work," Emmet said as he blew on the tips of his fingers that were currently positioned to mimic a gun.

"Actually Emmett, I was going to say maybe the water gun was a bit over the top," Edward said with a huge smile.

Water gun?

"No spy goes into enemy territory unprepared," Emmet informed us. "Besides, everybody was so tense. They needed to lighten up a bit."

"What did you do, Emmett?" I asked.

"My job, Bella. Edward asked us to keep an eye on that daughter of yours. I'm a very diligent worker, and I may have been a little bored and decided to have some fun with it, too," Emmet shrugged. "I just interrupted them whenever I could, sat in between them, and followed them around like a good spy."

"I didn't ask you to be a spy per se," Edward corrected while that huge smile never left his face.

"So where exactly does a water gun come in?" I asked.

"Well they were upstairs talking before bed and I snuck up on them. I was armed and dangerous, and I took Jacob down," Emmett boomed. "I needed to make sure I got the point across that he needed to sleep in Esme and Carlisle's room."

"What Emmett failed to mention is that he was wearing a suit and tie and inching along the walls with his gun ready to fire at will. He actually rolled through the door and soaked Jacob clean through," Jasper laughed.

"You broke the door?" I asked Emmett.

"Yes, but it was all part of my master plan. See I took the door off of Esme and Carlisle's room and put it in place of Edward's old one. This way Nessie was safely locked in and Jacob had no privacy," Emmett grinned.

"Don't bother telling him he could've just taken off the door and spared the other one the damage. He thinks his plan was brilliant," Alice giggled.

"It was brilliant. Thank you. I'm the best spy ever," Emmett answered. "I'm--"

"Cullen. Emmett Cullen. We know!" Everyone groaned at once.

"That's right! I'm glad we all know the truth. I'm the super spy," Emmett answered proudly.

"Well Mr. Super Spy here still didn't find anything today. Guess his spy skills aren't that great." Rosalie rolled her eyes .

"It's going to be hard to find anything. I wish I knew if it was going to be worth the effort. It's so frustrating! But I do believe we'll learn something before the full moon. I just don't know when, what, or how," Alice chimed.

Everyone discussed trying again the next day before we went our separate ways.

"I'm going to go check on Jacob and Nessie. Somebody's got to keep them in line. Hey Rose, maybe the whole suit thing was the wrong way to go about this. I'm thinking about spandex now. I'd be hot in spandex, right?" Emmet asked.

Rosalie turned to him and smiled evilly.

"Okay, no spandex! Rose, that image is worse than Emmett's mind!" Edward groaned.

"Aww, Rose, I'm touched you're having dirty thoughts about me. Spandex it is. Maybe I can wear it under my suit in true Superman fashion, but instead of Clark Kent, I'm Cull--"

"Emmett, if you say that one more time, I will hurt you!" Rosalie yelled.

Alice and Jasper laughed hysterically as Emmett followed after Rosalie apologizing and promising to make it up to her with spandex. Alice jumped on Jasper's back and Carlisle and Esme walked hand in hand back into the house while we made our way back to the cottage. My family was nuts.

"Well I guess Emmett had fun while we were away," I said to Edward as we entered the cottage.

"Yes. He thoroughly enjoyed himself," Edward smiled and made his way slowly across the room until his lips were an inch from my ear. "But not as much as I'm about to enjoy myself," he whispered seductively.

He kissed my throat softly before sucking below my ear and down my neck where he licked across my collarbone. He broke away to look at me with smoldering eyes. I love when he looked at me like that. He crashed his lips into mine and I sucked lightly on his perfect bottom lip. I could kiss this man every second of eternity and have the most fulfilled life. He slammed me into the wall and the cottage shook slightly. He grinned and pushed my body up the wall above him, kissing his way up and down my body over my clothes. It didn't take long for those to come off, and he picked me up to do it all over. Okay, this for eternity would be an even more fulfilled life. I loved Edward and the way he made me feel and ache for his touch as only he could.

Dawn broke all too soon and we were back off in search of the invisible. We did this for a week. The same routine everyday. Search all day and find nothing. Spend all night in Edward's arms. Well half that equation was perfect, but the other half was becoming a problem. Charlie couldn't find anything about the dead man in the woods.

Carlisle got the blood work back for the man. "The smell from his blood was silver. It doesn't quite make sense. He had 8 grams of silver in the blood. That's more than twice the lethal amount. The man had to have been dying. Maybe that's what attracted the werewolf to him. He wouldn't have lived more than a few hours longer if he hadn't been killed."

We still knew nothing. We hadn't come across anything. Silver in the blood meant next to nothing to us and we had no way of finding out the dead man's identity. Weeks went by with nothing new. It was getting down to the wire. We had exactly one week left to find out what we could to save ourselves. One week.

One week wasn't a lot of time. One week was just a tiny blip in eternity. One week and maybe we all wouldn't have to worry about eternity anymore. One week. Should we try to run? They would surely find us. We had no one to turn to. We were on our own. In one week, the worry would end. In one week, the moon would be full. In one week. this would all come to its climax. One week.

But with one week left, something happened. With one week left, our lives were forever changed. In that one week, we would learn more about our world than we ever knew existed. We would fight. We had to. This fight would only be the beginning of a whole other kind of fight.

**A/N: This next chapter should be fun. There will be werewolves in it. **


	5. OnStar

**AN: Sorry it takes so long to update. The semester is almost over though! I post as soon as I write it, I promise. Anyway, funny thing I just realized is what I named this story. I have my reasons for calling it Old Moon, which I'll reveal later, but it just occurred to me that OLD is opposite of NEW. Haha I am so dense sometimes. So yeah, I have a reason for the "Old" but it's not because there was already a New Moon.**

Chapter 5: OnStar

Carlisle and Jasper researched everything they could about silver in blood. Carlisle used any resource he could find in the hospitals, hoping to hear of some new street drug with silver in the chemical make-up. Emmett posted the drawing of the dead man from the woods on every telephone poles between Seattle and Portland. Rosalie called every dealership and mechanic in the Pacific Northwest looking for anything about a four wheel drive Suburban. Edward and I continued to ride around in hopes of stumbling upon anything. Jacob and Sam's packs tried to figure out any way possible to fight werewolves. Esme and Nessie tried to keep everyone calm. Alice sat unmoving trying to see anything at all.

Everyone had been so on edge lately that poor Edward couldn't take everyone's thoughts, so I had been putting my shield around the house and everyone to give him a break. It really wasn't hard for me to shield such a large amount of space. I had gotten adjusted to shielding Nessie and Jacob's thoughts. It wasn't much harder to shield the air around the Cullen home. I also used it to practice my power and push my shield out past my mile radius comfort zone. I wanted to be strong and practiced in case I needed it.

Dawn broke on Tuesday morning just like it was any other Tuesday morning. The dawn signified one week until the full moon that would change our lives. We were all concerned and had no idea what to do. Nobody had called about the missing man. The research on the blood revealed nothing at all. Rosalie had several Suburbans to check out, but so far she had discovered nothing of consequence. Edward and I also found nothing at all.

We decided to continue trying. What other option did we have? We were going to go about this Tuesday just like we had everyday for the past few weeks. Alice was sitting cross-legged and still as a statue on the back porch when Edward and I walked from our cottage to the main house after our much needed daily alone time. Hey, if I was going to die in a week, I was going to make the most of it whenever I could. I would die a happy vampire in a week.

Alice didn't notice our approach. She hadn't talked to anyone in days. She just sat there by herself in a meditative state. I think the world could end and she wouldn't know it unless she foresaw it. She was only in the future. Actually, the world as we know it was ending. I just hoped she would foresee how we could stop it.

We entered the house to find Carlisle was at the hospital and Nessie and Jacob were still asleep. Jasper was up in his study pouring through any research he could find.

"Hey, guys. We're heading into Port Angeles. Rose has a couple of promising leads that the local dealership sold two three-quarter ton, four-wheel drive Suburbans to the a group of people. We're going to go see what we can find out about them. We'll call you if we find anything." Emmett didn't sound hopeful. This wasn't the first lead they had followed. The last promising lead ended up being an elderly couple. The one before that had been bought by a church.

Rosalie was quite persuasive in getting any information she needed from car salesmen. Wonder why. She came downstairs in a tight black pencil skirt and heels and a low-cut baby blue blouse. She was sexy enough to get the information she needed but still dressed respectably enough to be taken seriously.

"Bella and I are heading close to Hoaquim to ride around again. We'll be in touch." With that, we all went our separate ways. Alice was still in her spot when Edward and I walked out to the Volvo. It was the new model of the Volvo Edward once owned. It was silver, too.

We were hopeless, really. Without a single hope at all. Edward just rode around listening to any mind he could find in search of something. Of course, we're assuming Edward isn't immune to reading werewolf minds like he is mine. We kept our eyes peeled for Suburbans, but every one we saw was not the one we were looking for. I was just along for the ride because I had nothing better to do with my time but spend it at Edward's side where I belong for eternity-- or at least the next week.

When you're facing a nearly certain death and knowing your time frame, you begin to think a lot about the afterlife. I'm not sure how much I believe in heaven and hell, but I found I wanted to believe in heaven more and more everyday. Of course, heaven to me was anywhere Edward would be. As long as he's with me, then nothing else matters. That's heaven. I would be Edward's for eternity in some form or another. I didn't doubt that we had souls. No, I have always believed Edward had a soul, so I believe in mine still. I didn't mention my thoughts to Edward, though. I didn't want him to somehow end up blaming himself if I died. I didn't want him to think he damned me to some level of hell because of what I am. Besides, I can't imagine any member of the Cullen family being damned.

Then there's Nessie, my sweet, sweet daughter. She could never be damned. She most definitely had a soul. She was so young. She was six years old. I have always had mixed emotions about Nessie physically growing up so fast. In some ways, I'm grateful. She matured fast enough to understand what we all are. She knew not to hurt Charlie. She was able to save herself from the Volturi because of her charm. Had she aged normally, she wouldn't have been able to do those things. But there are times when I wish she did age normally. I never had the time to properly adjust to becoming a mother. I felt somehow I missed out on watching her childhood, and she missed having one at all. I had her for only six years, but they were the six best years of my life.

If I were human, I would cry. I would cry for my family's lives. I would cry because my father would never know what happened. I would cry because Jacob and Nessie never got to experience a love like mine. I would cry to lose my six year old child. I would cry to lose my Edward.

We had been riding around in silence for hours when I heard Edward's phone vibrate in his pocket.

"Emmett?"

"_Edward, hey, look. We found something. Four people came and picked out the Suburbans-- three men and one woman. The salesman said they were polite but standoffish. They bought two identical blue Suburbans with cash." _I could hear Emmett clearly over the phone.

"Well, that's nice and all, Emmett, but what makes you think this is them?"

"_Oh, ye of little faith, the salesman described them all as being olive complected, almost Spanish-looking, but they all had _very_ blue eyes. Maybe it is a coincidence, but that is all we have at the moment."_

"Did you find out who they are?"

"_It took some extreme flirting on Rose's part and us buying a Suburban of our own, but yeah, I was able to get the copies of their driver's licenses." _I didn't even want to know, but apparently Jasper just got his own car.

"Well, good, where are you heading, and we'll meet you there?"

"_We are in route to nearby Carlisle's hospital, actually."_

"What? Why?"

"_Well, see the addresses on the driver's licenses were for Boston, and they left no paper trail or any information at the dealership. So while Rose was flirting away and buying the car, I called OnStar. I was able to look at all the information for the vehicles on the preoccupied salesman's computer and convince the OnStar girl that I needed to know the location of that vehicle because I was sure my wife was cheating on me. She felt sorry for me and obliged. The car was parked a few blocks away from the hospital in Portland." _**[AN: As far fetched as it sounds, a friend of my dad's thought his wife was cheating on him, so he called OnStar. They located her car at a local motel, where she was caught in a compromising situation with another man. While this wasn't the story the man gave the OnStar person, I can't remember the real one. I can assume, though, that Emmett could talk his way into anything, just like Rose could talk a salesman out of his office. I mean, hot blonde with a knowledge of cars wants to buy one from you, a middle-aged man, wouldn't you be eager? And if you thought poor Emmett's wife was cheating on him even on the phone, wouldn't you help? Poor humans didn't know what hit 'em.]**

"Emmett, I have to call Carlisle. If that is them, then it may not be a coincidence they're there."

Edward hung up and abruptly dialed Carlisle, all the while speeding off in the direction of the hospital.

"Carlisle. Be on alert. Emmett and Rose may have found them. They're nearby your hospital. There are three men and one woman. They have olive complexions and very blue eyes. That's all we know. Emmet and Rose and Bella and I are on our way."

"_Yes, Edward, I see. Actually, I'm headed home, so if you'll all just meet me there, that would be great."_

"No, I think it would be wise to find the vehicle and see if it is them."

"_Edward, listen to me. I have news and it's rather urgent. I would prefer we all meet at the house to discuss things."_

"Are you sure, Carlisle?"

"_Yes. I will be there shortly."_

With that, Carlisle hung up. Edward looked at me, perplexed. He was wondering the same thing I was. What could Carlisle have found? Edward quickly called Emmett back to let him know we needed to get home.

We were still in our comfortable silence thinking about our future. I was still worried about losing Edward and Nessie or if they discovered our scents near Charlie and Sue. Edward must have noticed my concern and reached for my hand. He kissed my ring and each fingertip on my left hand before asking the million dollar question, "What are you thinking, love?"

I took my hand from his and laid it against his smooth cheek to show him. I thought about Nessie and Charlie. I thought of crying. I thought about him and how I loved him so much it was painful sometimes. I loved him with everything I had and more. Pressing my palm to his cheek and letting him into my private mind was one of the most intimate things we had. He knew it and loved I would let him know my thoughts that he would never know otherwise. He hardly asked what I was thinking anymore because it was so personal, but honestly, I didn't mind if he did. I loved Edward so much that I was just glad I had this part to give him.

He eased my hand away from his face and placed my wrist to his lips to kiss repeatedly in between his words. "Bella, you have given me everything I never knew I wanted and much, much more. Your mind is your gift, and I'm glad you share it with me. I'm also glad you share every other part of yourself with me. I, too, give every part of myself to you." He brushed his lips across my knuckles before grasping the hand in his lap. "I wish I could tell you not to worry, but I will not lie to you. I fear those things as well, but just know that I will do whatever I can to save them. I will never leave you again. I promised years ago, and I mean it still. I would rather burn in hell's flames for the rest of eternity than break that promise to you on my own accord."

"Edward, please. No talk of hell. There is no hell for you, only heaven." Edward wasn't perfect, but he was good. He was the kind of good that moral men strived for and often failed. My being alive in any sense of the word is proof to that. He endured the torture of my blood that called to him so. I suppose that was his hell, but he loved me anyway. Even in the years when Edward was murderous, he was not bad. No, his killings may have been wrong but were just, and his intentions were good. There can't be hell for men such as him.

"My hell is where you are not." Edward touched his lips to the back of my hand. I knew what he meant exactly.

"Well, then there is most certainly no hell for you then because I will always be with you." I would never allow for anything else.

"Bella. If I… die, promise me you will stay with Nessie and the others. Promise me you will not give up. Promise me, Bella."

"I won't make false promises to you, Edward. Where you go, I follow. I will not promise that because I know you won't make me the same promise. If you die, I die, so I suggest you live," I smiled at him. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We still have a week."

He returned my smile as we pulled into the long driveway of the house to await Carlisle's news. Emmett and Rosalie were already there, and everyone was outside checking out the newest car to the Cullen collection. Even Alice was standing there. It was the first time I had seen her so much as breathe in the past days.

"So, Jasper, how do you like your new car?" I asked.

"Oh, no, not mine. It's Esme's car. She needs one more than I do. I don't exactly drive anywhere alone." Jasper corrected me.

"Oh, that's sweet of you, Jasper, but I really don't need a car either. I can always borrow one. It makes no matter to me." Esme smiled.

"Hey, wait a second guys. We bought the car. What if we want it?" Emmet asked.

"Eww, no, Emmett! You must be joking. I do NOT want this _thing._ I will not own or be married to someone who owns _this_. I made an exception to European cars when you bought the jeep years ago, but that was your once-in-a-century exception. I'm glad it's gone. I do prefer the Land Rover. If you want _this,_ I want a divorce." Rosalie loved her foreign automobiles. All the Cullens did, really. The Chevrolet stuck out like a sore thumb. I liked it, though. It was practical, and I was once fond of a Chevy myself.

"Well congratulations, Esme! You just won a BRAND NEW CHEVROLET SUBURBAN!" Emmett was posing by the car with his arms gestured out like a game show model, fake smile and all.

Esme just smiled as Emmett rambled off random luxuries the car offered. I was paying more attention to the smiles on everyone's faces and the light atmosphere as Emmett goofed off. "… large towing capacity, spacious leather interior, heated seats… oh, those are nice, sunroof, auxiliary jack, XM radio, OnStar. Hey, you know those people at OnStar really are helpful folks. I mean…"

Emmett was interrupted by Edward. "Carlisle's home. Someone is with him. He is thinking we should not be alarmed and is begging us to stay calm and listen. The other guy is nervous and thinks maybe coming to a house of vampires was not his best decision since…" Edward's mouth moved into a hard, straight line. "He is a werewolf."

At this news, we all went rigid for a second before quickly assuming attack positions. Why was Carlisle bringing a werewolf home. Was he in danger? Did the werewolves have some sort of hostage? Were we in danger? "Nessie! Get inside!" I ordered.

"No, it doesn't matter. He already knows about her. He doesn't know everything about us though. We should keep as many secrets as possible," Edward growled.

"Carlisle seems calm. The werewolf is a little nervous. Maybe we should see what Carlisle has to say." Jasper tried to calm the situation.

The Mercedes pulled up and Carlisle got out of the car first. "Please, everyone. Remain calm. There is someone I want you to meet." He gave Edward a look and his eyes widened in response to Carlisle's thoughts.

Then the other man, the werewolf, stepped out of the passenger side of the car.

"Everyone, I would like for you to meet Maximus," Carlisle introduced.

**AN: Okay, so I know I said there would be werewolves in this chapter, and technically there is one. I decided to cut it short because what happens next does not have a really good break in it, and this chapter would end up being incredibly long. This is the shortest chapter thus far, however. And I do enjoy the little cliffhanger. I didn't really mean for all the afterlife talk to happen, but I think it works. If you knew you had a week to live instead of eternity, wouldn't you contemplate what happens after death? I think Bella would. She would worry about others, too. Oh, and although I wrote Bella as not having set beliefs of heaven or hell, I don't feel that way. I just don't think Bella is religious. I, however, believe in heaven and hell in the Biblical sense and the cross and resurrection. I won't force it on Bella though. Also, I personally love American made cars, particularly General Motors, and wouldn't drive a foreign one. But let's face it, Rosalie has expensive tastes and all the Cullens drive foreign cars except for Emmett's jeep, but he got rid of it and now has a Land Rover. Edward also has a newer model silver Volvo. It's been 6 years, they had to get new cars!**

**The next chapter is going to be a good one. It'll get written… sometime after finals.**

**If there are errors, ignore them. I post right after I write, so I don't edit too much.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! Let me know what's in your pretty little head. **


	6. The Silver Lining

**A/N: I don't own Twilight or the Cullens. I do own Max and my werewolf history and mythology though. This chapter has a lot of dialogue. A LOT. Max tells the Cullens his history and story. It may get confusing because it's a bit complicated, but I wanted it to be good. I wrote a summary of it at the bottom if it's hard to follow. After reading this, you may officially doubt my sanity, which means I made darn good werewolves. Haha Enjoy!**

**Oh, and you should love me. BIG TIME. I'm visiting my parents in the Middle of Nowhere, MS where their only internet service is dial-up. I endured it to upload this chapter that I just finished. You REALLY should love me. I despise dial-up.**

Chapter 6 "The Silver Lining"

He was tall with dark brown hair, almost black, and a bit of facial scruff that resembled a five o'clock shadow. He was dressed in a button-up shirt and jeans. He didn't look a day over twenty years old, and he was indeed olive complected. But what stood out about the man was his eyes. His eyes were blue, but not the dark blue we heard about or searched for when we looked for the werewolves. No, they were light blue, like the man in the woods but not as clear.

"Hello. Please call me Max. Maximus was my father. There's a lot we need to talk about," Max said.

"A werewolf named Max? What 'Rover' or 'Spot' was already taken?" Rosalie hissed under her breath at only a vampire registered octave.

"No, but I suppose I do have a spot in the fur on my right leg though. The name may have been appropriate," Max joked.

We all froze. How did he hear that? Rosalie hissed. Emmett crouched.

Max put his hands up to gesture peace. "Like I said, we have much to learn about each other. I have sensitive hearing, for one," Max smiled. "I'm a wolf, after all."

I wasn't sure how to react. I looked up to Edward who just smiled back down at me. He looked confused, but he didn't look worried. Carlisle seemed comfortable. Jasper was protective, but I couldn't sense worry or fear coming from him. Alice was clearly intrigued, while Esme and Nessie stood back. Emmett, Rosalie, and Jacob looked murderous. If looks could kill, Max would be dead ten times over now. We all made our way to the big white living room.

"Max, please make yourself at home," Carlisle smiled. "Would you like anything? We have food in the kitchen."

"No, thanks, Carlisle, but I'm sure vampires make wonderful cooks." This Max had some nerve; I'd give him that. Rosalie sneered. He'd be dead twenty times over now if looks could kill.

"Actually, you would be surprised. There are a few of us who are good cooks, or so I've heard," Edward responded surprisingly nicely. I just stared at him. Now, I was confused. It seemed everybody else was confused too. They all turned to stare at Edward with miffed expressions and inner and, apparently, inner monologues, too.

"Carlisle, maybe you should explain exactly what it is that's going on here." Edward replied calmly to our family's thoughts, who were no doubt shouting in his head.

"Right. Max has come to explain to us about werewolves and to help us," Carlisle answered.

"What? A werewolf is going to help us? Really, Carlisle, are you sure this isn't just some sort of trap or mission to get information on us?" Rosalie fumed. "Why shouldn't we just kill him now?"

"I take it you're Rosalie." Max smiled. Edward began to shake in silent laughter. That did it. Maybe it was the ridiculousness of the situation, Edward's laughter, or the fact that against all reason, I was starting to like this Max, but I began to laugh too. He had nerve. I'm not even sure how many times Rosalie had killed him with that look in her eyes after that.

"I'm sorry. It's just…" I couldn't even finish the sentence. "No, please continue."

Max smiled at me and turned back to Rosalie. "I assure you I'm not on some sort of scouting mission. No, that was last week. I already know things about you. You don't hunt humans. You live amongst them. You're friends with shape shifting wolves. She's half human." He pointed to Nessie and Jacob growled. Max smiled softly to Jacob in return. "Sorry, I mean her no harm. I know she's your mate."

"How do you know these things? How did you know Rosalie's name?" Emmett asked skeptically.

"We've been watching the house and the good doctor. We were trying to figure out why you didn't kill humans." Max said. "And I knew she was Rosalie because Carlisle warned me about her on the ride over." Carlisle smiled sheepishly at this.

"How is it possible for you to observe us without Ed--- any of us knowing?" Emmett asked. Edward stiffened.

"I don't know much about vampires, but I would say you wouldn't be able to hear us in the woods a little over half a mile from here if we were quiet. That's where we listened. We really do have good hearing, just as good if not better than yours. We didn't stay long, just a few hours . We didn't want to risk you catching us." Max explained.

Edward looked perplex for a second before looking down at me questioningly. Oh! I was shielding Edward's mind when we were home. I was practicing my distance and shielding for miles. I _could_ have shielded his mind from werewolves, but I don't think that's possible. I can always sense who and how many people are under my shield. I would have known if I had shielded Max. I quickly put a shield around the room to check. Yes. There was the familiar feeling of shielding Carlise, Esme, Jasper, Alice, Emmett, Rosalie, Jacob, and Nessie. There was a new unfamiliar feeling of shielding Max. I would have felt him or any others and known there was someone new.

Edward looked further confused when I shielded the room and his mind went silent. I relaxed my shield back to just me. Then I looked at him and pushed my shield away from myself to let Edward in. With my hand on his cheek, I told him I would have felt Max or anybody else under my shield. I told him I didn't know how we missed the werewolves. He nodded

"It seems Bella and I must have been away when Max and the others were near the house." Edward told our family.

"Yes. I believe you're right. I was aware there were more of you, but I don't believe my people had seen you and your mate. They only described the rest of them." Max spoke.

"Your people. How many of you are there?" Jasper asked.

"Ah. That is what I'm here to talk to you about. Werewolves aren't as black and white as you may think." Max answered. "Just as you are not the same as red-eyed vampires who drink from humans, my people are not the same as other werewolves."

That caught everyone's interest. There are good werewolves to the bad werewolves. Maybe there was some hope to save our lives. "Please, continue," Carlisle urged.

"Werewolves aren't so different from vampires. I wasn't aware that there were vampires that abstained from human blood until just this past month. It's a relief to know that my people aren't the only ones who resist temptation." Max smiled reassuringly.

"You don't kill humans?" Esme spoke for the first time.

"No. My people have no desire to murder innocent people. The other werewolves do, though. Werewolves do not need to feed like you do. We are essentially human all but one day of the month. Of course, our humanity comes with certain _upgrades_, if you will. Really, our not feeding is not as admirable as yours. We only deal with temptation for less than twelve hours a month while you have it everyday." Max looked around impressed.

"It is not always easy, but it is right and worth every second of our discomfort. Trust me, I would know." Edward smiled crookedly at me, and I melted a little inside.

"You say your humanity has 'certain _upgrades_,' and the hearing is obviously one. What other improvements are there?" Jasper asked, clearly seeking information.

"After a full moon, after our transformation to a wolf and back to a human, we are basically no different than any other human. With every change of the moon leading to the full moon, our senses become stronger." Max explained. "Our hearing, sight, smell, taste all improve to inhuman capabilities. The increase in senses is essentially to entice our hunger, to make us want to kill on a full moon." He looked sincerely disgusted at the thought.

"What about your physical limitations and strength?" Emmett asked.

"We are only as strong as humanity allows. We do not really get stronger with the approach of the next full moon. If we do, it's minute and nothing inhuman." Max responded.

"It's obvious, everything we thought we knew about werewolves is not true, but we were under the impression your eyes would be dark blue. Why are they so light?" Edward asked.

"Our eyes change colors just like yours do. Your kind usually have red eyes while you have yellow. My eyes are light blue because I don't feed on humans and never have. My people are all light-eyed. The others have dark eyes, which mean they do feed on humans." Max offered. "Upon the oncoming full moon, their eyes will blacken with their hunger."

"So the dead man in the woods wasn't a man, was he? He had light, almost clear eyes; was he one of yours?" I asked. That man had haunted me for the past weeks, and maybe he wasn't even a man. I began to worry if we buried one of the good guys, now.

"No. He was one of the others. When we are killed, our eyes are drained of color just as our bodies are drained of life. Carlisle was telling me you know of the silver in his blood." Max paused before continuing. "Contrary to popular belief, silver does not hurt us. In fact, upon injury or death, our body makes silver to heal us. The dead werewolf you found had light eyes because of the silver his body was making. The light eye color was indicative of the silver being produced."

"This is why there was so much silver in the blood sample I took. His body was trying to heal." Carlisle explained.

"Yes. Thank you for taking care of the body properly also. That's one less werewolf we'll have to worry about on the full moon." Max gleamed. "The dismembering and burying was necessary. Otherwise, the full moon would have revived him. The silver heals and preserves the body in the human state. The full moon works with the silver to fully heal or revive the body in the form of the wolf."

"How was he killed?" Alice asked. It was the first thing she said to Max. She had been uncharacteristically quiet.

"He was killed by Joseph. Joseph is a dear friend and a good man and my brother-in-law. You see, there are ten of us in my _pack_. We stick together mostly, but we search out some of the others in hopes to find and kill them. It's hard to find them, but when it's a full moon, we can sense them. Joseph sensed and killed the werewolf you found in the woods. Joseph was the wolf the shape shifters saw run off. He didn't know what to think of the them. We have never encountered them before." Max told us.

"When you say you 'sense' them, what do you mean?" Jacob asked.

"During a full moon, we are all connected somehow, like a sixth sense." Max revealed. "We, who don't feed on humans, have more control over our emotions and ourselves during the moon. We have control over our actions, while those who do feed, submit to their hunger. They are wild and careless. They cannot sense us as well as we can sense them because they are focused solely on their senses of smell and sound and sight for the hunt. We are focused solely on using our sixth sense to find them. We are cautious. It helps us kill them when we can get to them in time."

"You said Joseph was your brother-in-law. What does that mean?" Esme had the next question.

"He's married to my sister Isis." Max smiled. "I suppose you don't know that werewolves can be born, do you? Isis is my blood relative. We are twins, actually. It's not uncommon for a werewolf to fall in love with a human. It's actually encouraged in order to reproduce. You see male werewolves can mate with female humans. Female werewolves can be with humans, but female werewolves cannot become pregnant. Many male werewolves use humans just to spawn children. The mother always dies, you see.

"My father, Maximus, was different though. He loved my mother and never planned to get her pregnant. But when he did, he was going to save her, to turn her into a werewolf, but fate intervened." Max continued. "My father's creator, Aurelius, ruled the werewolves. He was the leader, the king of the werewolves, I suppose. He created two wolves to act as his sons and his heirs. He created my father and another named Bristol. Aurelius was captured by your vampire leaders. My father and Bristol argued on a course of action until my father decided to try to save Aurelius. Bristol refused to go in search of him because he secretly wanted the power for himself. He was happy to let my father go after Aurelius, thinking he wouldn't come back. With them both out of the way, Bristol would rule.

"My father gathered a group of fighters and went in search of Aurelius. He waited for a full moon and attacked the castle and the vampires only to find Aurelius was already dead and buried in his multiple graves. He told me once he had one of the vampire leaders in his grasp and could have killed him." Max smiled a little at the mental picture. "But he chose not to because they were outnumbered, and he was losing men. He chose to save his men when he couldn't save Aurelius. He didn't take the fighters on a revenge mission. He went to bring Aurelius home and would not avenge his death at the cost of more lives.

"When he returned home with many injured men and the deaths of a few on his mind, he found my mother had already given birth a month earlier than expected to my sister and I." Max frowned slightly. "You see, in order to save my mother, we were going to have to be born within a day or two before a full moon. He could only hope this would happen. When a human gives birth to a werewolf child, her body begins to emit silver to repair it. After nine months of carrying a werewolf, the human womb becomes adjusted to the wolf properties, including the production of silver to heal. The human usually dies of silver poisoning in the blood stream. The full moon and silver alone will not save her. The full moon only heals the human if a werewolf infects her, and the full moon has to come before she dies in order to heal her. She's not officially a werewolf until there's been a full moon, so she can die from the silver poisoning.

"My sister, Isis, and I were born a day before the full moon my father attacked the vampires on. It was perfect timing to save my mother because she would only have to endure the silver poisoning a day and still be alive for the moon. If she had been infected by a werewolf after we were born, the full moon the day later would have turned her into a werewolf and saved her. It would have been soon enough to keep her from dying from the silver in her blood. The timing doesn't get much better as far as being able to save the mother. But my father didn't return until 3 days after the full moon, and my mother was already dead. My father was upset that Bristol didn't infect her and save her. Bristol told my father she begged him not to do it. But he knew my mother wanted to live to see her children grow, even if it meant immortality. My father never really believed Bristol but didn't have evidence that he lied. With the death of Aurelius, my father and Bristol needed to stick together and make laws to protect their people.

"If you want me to stop at anytime, please let me know. Carlisle just told me if I told you our history, you would better understand. I told it to him when I showed up at the hospital for him to check my _injury_." Max arched an eyebrow and rolled up his shirt sleeve to reveal his forearm covered in gauze. He pulled back the gauze a little to reveal a gash that seeped a silver substance instead of blood. For the first time, I noticed he smelled a little of silver.

"Yes, please continue. Then tell us how you got _that_." Esme's hands floundered around in the air like she didn't know what to do with them. She looked remorseful for Max's story and like a concerned mother for his injury. She was motherly even to a werewolf, and I loved her for it. I smiled at her never-ending kindness.

Max smiled at her softly and continued. "When Aurelius ruled, werewolves fed on humans mostly, although there were some who chose not to. My father was one of the ones who wouldn't feed on humans. He hated the life he was given. He loved my mother, a human, so he couldn't kill them. After Aurelius's death, my father convinced Bristol that the only way to remain safe was to move somewhere isolated and hunt as rarely as possible. Bristol was hesitant but agreed, though he never stopped feeding on a full moon.

"They moved to Greenland to settle down. They had laws and ruled together. My father never cared for Bristol. Bristol wanted to avenge Aurelius's death and blamed my father for not doing it, but he never volunteered to be the one to do it, either. My sister and I grew up together with our father. Bristol used and impregnated two human women a few years after we were born to get his own children. He hated our father had something he did not, so Bristol had two sons, Cyrus and Lars. Cyrus was a few months older than Lars, and Cyrus is the reason we werewolves have a civil war.

"When you're born a werewolf, you're human until the full moon after you're nineteenth birthday. That's the full moon when you become a werewolf. That moon is the hardest of your life. The desire to feed is insatiable. If left to their own devices, new werewolves will kill and feed on everything in sight. It's true for newly _turned_ werewolves, too. My sister and I were restrained frequently until we learned to control our hunger because we decided we never wanted to take innocent lives. We obeyed the laws my father established.

"The cardinal rule amongst the werewolves was to feed sparsely and be as discrete as possible to not attract attention to our existence. My father didn't want the vampires to know of our existence. They had not seen the vampires since the night he found out of Aurelius's death. The full moon after Cyrus's nineteenth birthday, our existence was no longer a secret. Bristol refused to restrain Cyrus because he believed his son would have the strength to abide by the laws. He was wrong. That full moon Cyrus massacred an entire village. Breaking that particular law was punishable by death, but Bristol refused to sentence his son to execution.

"My father and Bristol were at odds. My father wanted to enforce the laws. Bristol used it as an opportunity to have a revolution and split the werewolves. He spoke about being tired of repressing his nature, and wanting to live freely, and that Cyrus was just the example they needed to follow. The werewolves split. Half went with Bristol, while the other half went with my father. My father sent some of the werewolves to clean up evidence of the massacre, while the rest of us moved to a new location.

"Those that went to clean up the village ended up dead. The vampires heard about what Cyrus did and waited to ambush those who went to clean up. They were only human at the time and all died quickly. My father was devastated and vowed to make Cyrus pay for what he did. Luckily, the vampires believed that the werewolves were wiped out after they killed those that went to the town, so we were safe if we kept our existence a secret. Bristol's people tend to live nomadically to not draw too much attention to their ways.

"My father did indeed kill Cyrus, but he was killed in return by Bristol. Aurelius would have been heart broken to know his son murdered his other son. I have killed Bristol since then. Lars, his other son, has taken over his kind. I now lead mine along with my sister Isis. We have a war amongst ourselves. We still have a deep hatred for vampires as well. We were raised to believe they were heartless murderers of innocents just like Lars's pack. We have all killed vampires in the past, but we have always been careful. We investigate the vampires before we kill them. But when we investigated you, we found you were much like us and decided we wish to get to know you and not kill you.

"We are not your enemy, but Lars is. He too knows about you by now and he will kill you on the full moon. He and his entire pack gather together only to kill vampires. They are split mostly the rest of the time. However, I don't want your demise. I've discussed this with my pack, and we've decided to help you. We have a common interest to protect the innocent and a common enemy in Lars. I'd say we're on the same team."

Everyone was quiet, just sitting there absorbing the history of werewolves from the mouth of one. Max's story was a sad one, but he seemed to be good and reliable. He was a very likeable person, and I hoped he was being truthful with us. I turned to Edward. He would know if Max spoke the truth. I laid my hand on his cheek, relaxed my shield away, and asked if we could trust him. He nodded.

"I agree with Max. He speaks the truth. We can use all the help we can get, and in turn, we can help Max." Edward said confidently.

"I also agree." Jasper said. "Max was sincere and honest. I believe we can trust him."

Emmett and Jacob nodded. Esme, Alice, and Nessie smiled. Rosalie scoffed. The vampires were going to do the unthinkable again. If we thought teaming up with the Quileutes was outrageous, then teaming up with werewolves takes the cake.

"We're going to win." Alice said suddenly with a smile.

We all looked at her. "Did you see it?" Carlisle asked her.

"Not exactly, but for the first time in weeks, I feel hope. I'd like to think years of being a psychic has given me more than just visions." Alice grinned from ear to ear and clapped her hands together. It was good to see her return to her normal, chipper self.

"Are you sure it's not just Jasper? I mean you are kind of close to him. You could just be feeling his hope." Emmett joked.

Alice stuck her little tongue out at him. Jasper focused on Emmett, who suddenly seemed terrified and clenched onto Rose. She swatted Emmett away, mumbling about him being a grown man and immortal. Edward chuckled silently. I smiled. We were going to be okay.

Max just looked confused. "I think I'm confused, but I'll forgive it considering I'm breathing and all. Thanks for hearing me out and not killing me, by the way."

Alice laughed. "Well we're the Cullens. I'm Alice, and I'm a psychic. This is my husband Jasper, and he's an empath. That's Edward, my adoptive brother and mind reader. That's his wife Bella and my best friend, the shield. That's Emmett, my other adoptive brother and Rosalie's husband. That's Esme, Carlisle's wife and our mother to the public eye. That's Nessie. She's Bella and Edward's biological daughter and my favorite niece in the whole wide world. And that's Jacob, a shape shifter who imprinted on Nessie when she was just a baby."

It still amazed me how fast she could talk even if she didn't have to breathe. Poor Max just looked like he entered the Twilight Zone, but that's just Forks. He's a werewolf, so I didn't doubt that he would fit in like he belonged in our twisted little tale.

"And I thought my life was a best-selling novel waiting to be written. It seems like the Cullens may give me a run for my money whenever I decide to write my biography. You realize I didn't understand a thing you just said. I think there's a lot to learn about you still." Max smiled.

"Yeah, there's a lot to learn. For instance, the little one is a force of nature. Don't let her size fool you." Emmett grinned.

Alice just danced over and hugged him.

"See, that's not normal behavior. She's a scary, scary little thing." Emmett faked a shutter and smiled. We all smiled. We had all missed Alice during her little trip to the land of the future. We missed her unstoppable energy.

"We'll tell you all about us, and we'd love to meet your people and hear about all of them, too. First, tell us about that cut on your arm." Esme smiled. Everybody just couldn't stop smiling for the first time in a month.

"My arm." Max laughed. "Well, it got in the way of one of other's claws last full moon. Don't worry though. I took the claws with me, along with the paw it was attached to and the adjacent arm. It's buried somewhere outside of Boise. My arm will heal, but I'm afraid his won't just grow back. It's such a pity, too. A one-armed werewolf isn't a pretty sight."

"I think we're going to get a long just fine," Emmett said.

Max said his goodbyes shortly after that. He shook all of our hands, even Rosalie's. She was starting to come around. We all agreed to meet back at the house the next day with all of us. I mean, all of us- the Cullens, Sam's pack, Jacob's pack, and Max and the werewolves. We were all meeting under one roof to learn about the werewolves. This was going to be…interesting.

Edward and I all but skipped back to our cottage that night. Tonight we would celebrate a new ally and a newfound hope. I wouldn't be with Edward to savor one of the last night's of my life. No, tonight I would be with Edward to celebrate the possibility of eternity again. It was a sweet, sweet celebration embodied in one very physical, passionate night.

**A/N: Okay, so that's a whole lot of information. I hope it was clear. If you have questions, ask. **

**SUMMARY of werewolf history: Max and Isis are twins who were born to Maximus Sr. Their mother died because Maximus's "brother" Bristol didn't save her. She died of too much silver in the blood, which is what all human women die of after giving birth to werewolf babies. If she had been infected by a werewolf, she would've lived because the full moon was the next day. Maximus was away because he went to save his "father" and leader Aurelius from the Volturi. Maximus is the one who almost killed Caius. Bristol's oldest son Cyrus killed a village in Greenland and split the werewolves. Half went with Bristol and his sons Cyrus and Lars. The others went with Maximus, Max, and Isis. Maximus sent some people to clean up the village deaths, but the Volturi had sent vampires to kill them. The Volturi then believed all werewolves were dead. Maximus killed Cyrus. Bristol killed Maximus. Max killed Bristol. It's a whole bunch of drama that Max doesn't talk about because it's personal and painful. Lars leads the bad wolves now and Max and Isis lead the good that don't feed on humans. The man in the woods was a bad guy. Isis's husband Joseph was the one who killed him. Their eyes: dark blue if they feed on humans, black when they're hungry (close to the full moon). They're light blue if they don't feed on humans. The man in the woods had light blue/clear eyes because he was dead and his body was producing silver. Silver: when a werewolf is injured or dead, his body produces it to heal or preserve it. On the next full moon, the werewolf will be healed of everything, even death. You have to dismember and bury its pieces apart to guarantee the moon doesn't fix it. After a full moon, the werewolves are just normal. With every phase of the moon, their senses get stronger. This is to make them want to feed on humans more. A born werewolf is human until the full moon after the nineteenth birthday. I think that's it in a nutshell.**

**I didn't divulge some werewolf info like how you get infected… I wanted to save some info for the other werewolves to give. **

**I have considered switching points of view, especially in this chapter because Bella is so clueless. I would have really liked to have done Carlisle's point of view when Max shows up at the hospital with a silver oozing gash on his forearm saying they need to talk. At the end of this story, I may go back and write some different POVs of situations, particularly this. But for now, I kinda wanna stick with Bella. The point of view changes at the end though, is definitely a possibility. **

**Next chapter: we meet the rest of the werewolves, and they're characters, trust me. I really like them, especially little Lexi. **

**I'm gonna try to update more often since school is out. Plus I have a billion different story ideas I'm working out right now. I like them all, a lot and want to get started.**

**Okay, so review. Crucify me if you want! Tell me I'm crazy. I promise not to disagree. I know I complicated things, but somehow it's the only way I could justify a war amongst the werewolves, and I didn't want them to all be bad. I also wanted the werewolves to vary from Jacob and Sam and those wolves a good bit. I liked the idea of silver actually helping rather than harming werewolves. Stupid Hollywood is so clueless.**

**So press that REVIEW button, and let me have it. Tell me if you love it, hate it, or if you're dialing Santa Rosa Mental Facility… whatever, just let me know what you think!**


	7. Wolves Galore

**A/N: I don't own the Cullens, Hales, or Quileutes. I actually had to delete and restart this author's note because the original one took off on a whole big tangent complete with perverse little jokes. And I'm figuratively biting my tongue this minute while my mind resurfaces from the gutter it was just visiting. Actually I'm pretty sure it's set up camp and even got a cable subscription down there. Wow, tangents galore. Anyway, thanks so much for all the reviews for the last chapter! You make me feel all warm and fuzzy (and I'm biting my tongue figuratively again). Either, I'm not crazy, or you people are. It's a toss up. Here's some more with the wolves!**

Chapter 7: Wolves Galore

The next morning at sunrise, Edward and I didn't even bother rushing out of bed. We just laid there a few extra minutes enjoying each other's company and the fact that we didn't feel as doomed as the previous morning. Nessie was asleep in her room in the cottage for the first time in weeks. She had been staying at the main house because Jacob was around all the time. She was still sleeping soundly in her bed this morning. I could hear her steady breaths and her slightly slowed heartbeat, although it was still much faster than a human heart could handle.

Edward and I lay there entwined in our own personal heaven-- our unnecessary, and at the same time quite necessary, big white bed. My eyes were closed and my nose was buried in the crook of his neck, while my lips rested gently against his collar bone. His face was buried in my hair, and I could feel the deep rise and fall of his chest against my own each time he inhaled my scent. I was glad to this day that I still smelt good to him, minus the bloodlust temptation. From our current entangled position, I could definitely feel that the other lust was still _very_ much there, thankfully.

"I love you. I hope you know that with your entire being every second of the day." He stopped to lightly touch his lips to my temple and gently move them down to my throat where he took his time moving his mouth with nothing but sincerity and passion against my now silent pulse. I gasped a little at the sensation. Oh, how I loved him!

"I do. I have never doubted that. I love you too, you know." I smiled and pulled his face up to stare levelly into his dark amber eyes. His eyes really were beautiful, not because of the unique color. No, mine were probably nearly the same shade today since we tended to hunt together and grow hungry at the same times. His eyes were beautiful because I could see _him _in them. How this man ever doubted the existence of his soul simply boggles my mind, and it's _such_ a beautiful soul. I pushed my lips forcefully against his and we molded and melted together in the familiar, but always fiery and unexpected, manifestation of our undying love.

After a little more time together, Edward pulled me on top of him and whispered, "I've missed this."

"I have too," I sighed and laid my head on his perfect marble chest. I knew exactly what he meant. We hadn't missed nights alone together very often in our years of marriage, and lately we hadn't missed any. But in the past few weeks, our nights had been controlled by our need to have one another. There was a sense of desperation between us. We were trying to fit a whole eternity into our last few weeks together. But last night was different. There was still the yearning, the hunger, the need, but there was also joy and hope. I had never been happier to lay in his granite arms until right now, just reveling in the moment with less pressure and a smaller expectation of our inevitable demise.

There was still pressure, of course. We still had many details to work out and a lot to learn about our newest alliances and our mortal, or rather immortal, enemies. There was pressure, but now our demise wasn't inevitable, only probable, which was a significant improvement.

When Nessie began to stir, we eased out of bed and dressed at a slow pace. We were just basking in the last remnants of the night and the glorious start to our day. Edward left the room to greet our daughter while I quickly made the bed. I sat down on the corner and stared down at my most prized possession-- the beautiful antique ring on the third finger of my left hand. I contemplated how lucky I was to have the love of my existence, and my reason for being, ever present in my life and how wonderful he was. He had given me my daughter, my sweet girl who was more a woman than most women ever were.

As I sat there, I heard them laughing and playing like they used to when Nessie was younger. I could hear her squeals and his laughter. I could practically see her thrown over his shoulder while he zipped around the room or her shaking helplessly as her father tickled her senseless. I pictured her as a three year old, well she looked more like ten in my mind, but that made her three. I smiled to myself and rushed into the small living room to watch them like I often did.

Nessie was on the ground rolling, trying to escape Edward's ruthless tickling fingers. I laughed. I could hear the floorboard groan in resistance to their weight and movements. They were going to break something, and it was the most pleasant thing I'd seen in nearly a month. Now, I had a very important decision to make. Do I help my husband further torture my daughter or do I help my daughter turn the tables and take on my husband? Decisions. I had to act fast before they both realized their audience and made peace to turn their attentions to me. If only I knew what they were thinking…

Then it hit me as I watched Edward. _Bella thinks she's being inconspicuous, but she smells too lovely to not be noticed. Maybe I should turn my merciless hands to her. That could have some interesting consequences… _Then I looked at Nessie. _How can mom not help me? He is about to corner her and get her just like he used to… I'm so glad holding my breath is easy… I am so getting Jake to help me plot my revenge. Maybe I can get him to kiss me in front of everyone, what do you think, Dad?_ Edward and I both yelled, "No!" at the same time.

I fell to the floor and put my head in my hands, but I could no longer hear it. I heard their thoughts! Nessie's came in chunks and were as breathless as she was. Edward's were consumed with me. I should really appreciate this fact, and I probably would, if I weren't scared out of my mind, literally. They both rushed to me chanting choruses of "what's wrong?" and "what happened?" Maybe, I hadn't heard their thoughts. Maybe it's just my overactive imagination working overtime. I had wanted to hear their thoughts, so the only natural explanation would be my imagination on overload, right? Of course Nessie would want revenge and would think of Jacob to taunt her father. My ego had only wanted Edward to think of me. That has got to be it. So why had Edward said "no" too?

I finally looked up at them and smiled, trying to look as unperturbed as possible. "I can't believe you guys fell for that!" I laughed through the sentence, hoping they were buying my acting ability and think it was all a stunt to get them to stop playing around. I rolled over onto my side a little and hid my face in my hair just to make sure they didn't see it if my face faltered and showed my concern. I had a good reason to be concerned, too: either I just heard minds I wasn't supposed to hear or I'm losing mine. Neither option looked too good, and I didn't exactly want to divulge my sudden lapse of sanity to them. We had enough to worry about without having to find a padded cell that could imprison a vampire.

Apparently my once horrible human acting skills died when I did because the next thing I knew I was being tickled, poked, and prodded by two different sets of hands. It's times like these that having a stone hard rib cage is really quite handy. I was ticklish, not as ticklish as Nessie, but I don't think any immortal in the history of time has ever been _that_ ticklish. Edward wasn't at all, and I still didn't understand how he couldn't be the least bit ticklish. Maybe I could tickle him and read his mind to see if he's fibbing about it. No. Reading minds is Edward's forte, apparently the only thing my mind can do is a disappearing act. Mind reading. It's utterly ridiculous.

After a few minutes of the tickling conspiracy, I was able to escape and make my run to the house to see the rest of the family and await the arrival of a whole lot of wolves. Lots of wolves. Edward caught me of course, but he just placed a sweet kiss on the side of my neck. Nessie came in a few seconds after us.

I could hear Carlisle and Jasper in the study discussing the wolves. Emmett and Rosalie seemed preoccupied. Esme was walking around, tidying up the already immaculate house. Alice was dancing around the living room, arranging one of the numerous vases of freshly cut flowers present. I quickly counted ten different vases of assorted flowers placed evenly throughout the large white room.

"Alice, what's with all the flowers? Don't you think you've gone overboard?" I asked.

"They're not for decoration. They're for odor control. I figured with so many different species present and the way we all smell to each other, the flowers might cover some of it. Or at least keep the smell from lingering too much. I mean, Jacob is one thing and even Seth, but all the wolves at the same time? We'll have to leave the doors open for days," Alice explained, scrunching her nose at the thought.

"Speaking of Jacob and Seth, they and Leah are almost here. Leah is not pleased to be here, and she's not looking forward to Max and the werewolves either," Edward informed.

Leah Clearwater was one of a kind. She still kept her distance from us, and we only saw her when she didn't know we would be around. She always excused herself soon after she saw us. She wasn't rude to us, really, just not overly cordial. Nessie saw her more than the rest of us because of the time she spent at La Push. Leah was beginning to warm up to Nessie some, but they weren't exactly friends.

Seth rushed into the house and ran right to Esme for a giant hug. Esme was surprised when her feet left the floor, but she laughed and welcomed Seth like a son. Seth spent a good bit of time around the house. He looked up to Edward I think, and he and Emmett had become fast friends. Even Rosalie liked Seth. That spoke volumes for his character. Jacob came in, immediately finding Nessie and placing a chaste kiss on her cheek. Edward quickly turned his head in the other direction. Ignorance is bliss, but too bad poor Edward would never be ignorant to their relationship.

Leah hesitated on the porch before making her way in, keeping her back to the wall. Alice skipped over to stand in front of her. She was attempting to persuade Leah to take a seat before they were all taken. Leah wasn't comfortable being in a house of vampires, but Alice, as always, was incorrigible. Leah reluctantly gave in and made her way to the arm chair. She was visibly tense.

Jasper and Carlisle made their way down the stairs to greet everyone. Leah relaxed slightly at the sight of Carlisle, or maybe it was just Jasper's presence. Jacob had informed us everyone else would be here soon. Embry and Quil stayed behind to bring in Sam's pack. Rosalie and Emmett descended the stairs a few minutes before Sam's pack arrived.

Sam entered first to greet Carlisle. He expressed his concern about trusting the werewolves, but Edward assured him the werewolf was being honest. The pack entered and fanned out across the room. I was beginning to understand the need for the flowers, but they helped only minutely. The house was going to need airing out something terrible after this.

There were a few conversations around the room and some small talk, but mostly it was awkward. While we all got along and even fought together, we weren't exactly social with one another. We didn't have to wait long to hear two cars pull off the main road on route to the house.

"They're nearly here. There are ten of them. Most of them are nervous or concerned. A few of them are excited at the prospect of beating the other werewolves," Edward said.

We had discussed before that only a few of us should welcome them on the porch, as to not scare them. Of course Carlisle and Edward would go. Esme and I offered to be part of the welcoming wagon too because we both looked harmless. Alice was tiny, but she would probably be too excited to remain still. Jasper could calm them down, but he wasn't the most welcoming vampire in the world. Rosalie and Emmett were not even considered to greet them because they're, well, intimidating.

The four of us made our way onto the porch, each of us standing by our significant others, when the two Suburbans pulled up. Max jumped out of the first one and made his way over to shake Carlisle's hand. The rest of the first vehicle took their time getting out. The second vehicle stayed idling while its occupants lingered inside, all except for one. She was a pretty girl, who looked slightly younger than us. She had olive skin and shoulder length wavy brown hair. She was short, maybe only an inch or two taller than Alice and just as petite. She jogged excitedly to the porch to catch up with Max, who just smiled at her and wrapped his arm around her.

"Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Bella, please meet my niece, Lexi," Max introduced.

Lexi waved, bouncing on the balls of her feet a little. She didn't look nervous, just happy and maybe a little hyper. She hopped over to shake Carlisle's hand, completely ignoring his cold touch. She surprised us all when she hugged Esme before shaking Edward's hand. She quickly threw her arms around my neck when she made her way over to me. She was reminding me very much of Alice at this point.

"Lexi! You don't have to scare the hosts!" shouted the woman who was driving the second vehicle. She was tall with long dark brown hair that flowed down to the small of her back in curls. She was beautiful and looked very similar to Max.

"Isis, I'd like you to meet the Cullens," Max said before turning to face us. "This is my sister, Isis. She's Lexi's mother." She smiled politely and shook all of our hands, only wincing slightly at the cold temperature of our skin once. Soon after, everyone else followed suit, and we all entered the house.

Some of the werewolves gasped at the number of bodies in the living room. Some of the Quileutes stiffened at the sight of the werewolves. I searched their faces. I noticed Paul was even more tense than before. Leah was staring peculiarly at the wolves. Sam was standing with his arms crossed over his chest in an alpha stance. Jacob pulled Nessie slightly closer into his side. I saw Edward's lips curve up slightly at something, and I assumed Jake holding Nessie wasn't it. Everyone was reacting about the way I anticipated, except Leah. I was expecting Leah to be nervous or upset by the werewolf's presence, but instead, she seemed intrigued and relaxed.

Emmett was standing slightly in front of Rosalie in a stance mirroring Sam's. His eyebrows were pushed together and his lips were set in an almost frown. He looked tough and scary and very much unlike my teddy bear of a big brother. Alice was perched on the arm of Seth's chair with her ankles crossed and her hands folded in her lap, while Jasper was standing behind it emitting calmness throughout the room. Alice was clearly giddy from her ear-to-ear smile and her obvious effort to remain still.

After all the werewolves entered the room, they mostly looked scared out of their minds. Some were eyeing the door like they may run for it. Some were trying to appear comfortable, but it was forced. Max and Lexi were the only two who looked completely comfortable.

Max smiled and made his way over to shake Emmett's hand. Emmett looked at him with a hard expression before cracking a big grin and sticking his hand out to him. He then turned to Rosalie with an outstretched hand. She hesitated before giving him her hand and looking away. Max grabbed it every so lightly and quickly leaned over to kiss her knuckles. Rosalie turned to look at Max with an expression of pure shock before removing her hand from his. Edward shook a little beside me with laughter, and I knew he was enjoying this. Emmett laughed loudly causing everybody to jump a little before patting Max on the shoulder and saying, "You, my friend, have balls."

As Max made his way over to say hello to Jacob and Nessie, there was a loud smack followed by an "Ow." We all turned to see Emmett rubbing the back of his head and apologizing profusely to Rose. Seth immediately erupted in laughter followed by Alice's giggles and Jasper's snickers. The whole room lightened after that, whether it was Jasper's happiness radiating or the sight of an overly muscled vampire being slapped by his wife, I don't know.

Lexi made her way around the werewolves to the front and was the first to speak. "Hey! I'm Alexis but call me Lexi." She animatedly waved to the room, and I was awaiting everyone to simultaneously say, "Hi, Lexi," but instead, there were crickets. I could hear Seth's gulp from across the room as he first laid eyes on Lexi. I smiled a little to myself. Alice instantly jumped up and made her way over to Lexi. They were very similar in height and stature.

They looked each other up and down admirably before they both hugged in a friendly embrace. Alice began complimenting her taste in clothes, and Lexi returned the favor. They were alike in more than just the physical aspect. They were both nearly shaking with excitement when Alice grabbed Lexi's hand to introduce her to Jasper. I smiled. There was a werewolf version of Alice.

Max laughed and leaned over to Edward and I and whispered, "I thought they might get along."

Carlisle decided then it was time for introductions. "Hello, everyone and welcome. I'll introduce you to my family. I'm Carlisle. This is my lovely wife, Esme." He wrapped his arm lovingly around her before moving across the room to place his hand on Edward's shoulder. "This is Edward and his beautiful wife, Bella." I would've blushed from his compliment if I were human, but instead I just settled for a smile. He then walked to Alice, who was still holding onto Lexi. "This very excited one is Alice and her charming husband is Jasper." Carlisle smiled at his little joke before gesturing to Rosalie in the corner. "That is Rosalie and her husband, Emmett. Trust me, he just looks scary."

"Hey! I'm scary. I'm terrifying, in fact," Emmett said defensively.

Rosalie rubbed her hand through his hair reassuringly. "Sure you are, Emmie."

We all snickered. He hated that nickname. Emmett began pouting before Nessie reached up from her spot on the couch to touch his arm. "Uncle Emmett, you are the scariest vampire I've ever laid eyes on," Nessie smiled, as did Emmett who was clearly pleased with her words. But then Nessie's eyebrows knitted together in thought. "No, wait. I take that back. I forgot about the Volt- uh, the incident when I was a baby." Emmett's face fell again. I was just happy Nessie thought twice about saying the "Volturi" aloud. "But you are the scariest, _scariest_ vampire in this house, Uncle Em," Nessie added quickly and Emmett's smile turned smug as he looked pointedly at Edward and Jasper.

I couldn't help but smile when I took Edward's hand. He looked back at me with his heartbreakingly beautiful crooked smile and kissed my hair. He never released my hand after that. Occasionally, he would bring it to his lips and brush them softly across the back of my hand or my wrist.

Max jumped into his introductions as well. He introduced the ten werewolves to us. He reintroduced Isis and Lexi. He then introduced Lexi's father and Isis's husband, Joseph. He was the one who killed the werewolf on the last full moon that ultimately led to our meeting.

"Of course, when I say Lexi is my daughter, I mean figuratively. We were able to prevent her death by killing the werewolf that was trying to kill her, but she was scratched in the process and transformed into a werewolf. Joe and I took her under our wing and have always thought of her as our daughter," Isis said with a content smile. "She was so young when she was infected, only sixteen."

"So you can turn people into werewolves with just a scratch?" Jacob asked.

"Yes, scratches or bites both infect humans. The human will be in a lot of pain until the next full moon when the change actually happens," Isis replied with a nod.

"It's excruciating. Just lying there for a month waiting. It's awful," Lexi said with a pained face. Several other werewolves nodded in agreement and Isis looked sad. Lexi continued, "But they saved me, and they're great, so it made it worth it. Hey, what about you guys? What's the change into a vampire like?"

I froze at the question and hoped I wouldn't be asked about this. Edward still believed I didn't feel anything during my transformation. I didn't want he or Nessie to know that I felt every bit of it, every single lick of the flames against me. They were both so grateful I didn't have to experience the burning. But I knew all too well the wake of fire created by the venom working its way throughout my dying body. I repressed a shudder at the memory and plastered on an unreadable expression.

"It's quite painful as well. The venom is thick and spreads slowly throughout the blood system," Carlisle explained methodically. "It feels like what I would imagine lying in a fire would feel like, but fortunately for us, it only lasts about three days until the heart stops and we awake."

The Quileutes mostly shifted uncomfortably. The werewolves emanated small noises of understanding and sympathy. The room grew silent before Max continued his introductions.

He introduced Randall and Prudence and Christopher, who he guaranteed had an interesting story. They promised they would tell us later. Max then introduced us to Zander and William who they called Billy. He told us Zander and Billy were also a part of that story, and that Chris, Zander, and Billy were originally part of Lars's pack. Lastly, Max introduced us to Genevieve. She stuck out amongst them. They all had dark hair but hers was blonde. Max said Genie too had a story. She just nodded meekly in agreement. We would learn more about them later. First, we had to figure out our strategy for the approaching full moon.

Jacob then took the lead to introduce his pack. He introduced Leah and Seth, who both looked at the werewolves with looks of disbelief on their faces. He pointed out Embry and Quil. Then Sam introduced his pack to the werewolves, who greeted them with polite nods.

After all courtesies were offered, we began to discuss Lars's pack. Max told us there were more of them, but he didn't know how many because their numbers varied. He expected there to be around twenty of them who would show up to fight us. We clearly had the numbers, but we still needed to know how to fight werewolves. We had the element of surprise too. Lars's pack were coming to fight vampires. They may or may not know about the Quileutes, and they definitely didn't know about Max's pack.

Max explained, "Killing werewolves on a full moon is extremely difficult. When we are the wolves, any minor injury will just immediately heal itself because of the effects of the moon. In order to deliver any permanent damage, you need to extract them limb from limb, much like you would kill a vampire."

He smiled sheepishly before continuing. "The limbs can easily be reconnected to the body and healed, if the injured werewolf can get to them. Werewolves are strong. We are just as strong as vampires, if not stronger. We are big and tall. We stand at least eight feet high and can use our hands and arms much more like a person than a wolf. We have sharp claws and fangs. If you get near our mouths, you'll be in trouble."

"What happens if a werewolf were to scratch or bite any of us?" Esme asked, gesturing to the entire room.

Max looked down. "As for the shape shifters, I do not know. I have never encountered you before. I honestly don't know what to expect if you get scratched or bitten. I don't know what would happen if you were infected. I'm sorry." Max looked at them all with a sad face. "As for vampires, both our scratches and our teeth can and will penetrate your skin if you let us get close enough. If you are infected by a scratch, you _should_ be fine. No doubt, you'll be in pain until the next full month and sick. After that you should be healed. If you're bitten, then usually the amount of saliva transmitted will kill you. If it is a small amount, you could live theoretically. I've only ever known of large amounts of saliva transferred during the bite though."

We all shook our heads now knowing the danger of fighting werewolves. They were huge and equally as strong and their bites would kill us. We had to watch for their claws _and _their fangs. Great.

"What happens if we were to bite one of them?" Rosalie asked. I was shocked she spoke to them.

Max smiled at her and said, "They die. Your venom will cause them to transform back into a human, and then they're an easy kill, so ultimately your venom will kill them."

"So, basically if you bite us, we die. If we bite you, you live. If you scratch us, we get sick. If we scratch you, you heal. It seems kind of unfair if you ask me," Emmett said.

"That's why vampires generally fear us and also why we hide. On a full moon, it is easier for us to kill you than for you to kill us. But the rest of the days, we're helpless and you can easily kill us. We're powerful but only for a short amount of time, where as you always are," Max said.

"So our only approaches are dismemberment and biting then killing?" Jasper asked.

"Yes. You are strong enough to tear them apart. You are also faster, so that is your advantage. But beware that we are slow by no means, so be on guard," Max said. "After we've killed them, we'll still have to make sure they're torn apart and then buried in separate graves."

"I would like to ask how you shape shifters fight," Isis said.

Jacob and Sam exchanged a meaningful look before Jacob began. "We've only fought vampires." The werewolves looked confused, but Jacob quickly explained. "Oh, not the Cullens. We have fought other vampires that kill humans or have tried to hurt Bella and Nessie. Anyway, our teeth can rip their limbs off. That's how we kill them."

"I see. What happens if you are bitten by a vampire?" Isis asked.

"It will kill us. We can also be crushed by their strength," Jacob winced. "Trust me, I would know. But we heal quickly, not instantly like you when you're a wolf, but quickly enough."

"Okay. We should probably assume that a werewolf bite would also kill you. And to be safe, maybe we should assume even a scratch would kill you too. There's always the chance that it won't because you're wolves, but I would feel better if we played it safe," Isis smiled softly. "Would you transform for us so that we could all see what you're like? I know Joe has already seen you, but we would all like to."

"Sure," Jacob replied and went out the front door.

We all walked outside as Jacob walked out from around the side of the house. He was the horse-sized red brown wolf. Nessie giggled and walked over to scratch his ear. Jake panted and kicked his back leg in mock pleasure. Edward's grip on my hand suddenly tightened and the look on his face was murderous as he looked at the display. I didn't see why that would upset him; it was innocent enough. I would have to ask him about that later.

Isis walked down the stairs followed by Max and Lexi. "Exquisite. May I?" she asked with her hand outstretched asking to pet him.

He nodded his head. Isis ran her fingers through his shaggy russet coat. "May I see your teeth and paws?" she asked.

Jacob nodded once then grinned a big wolfy smile. Nessie giggled again and pulled his jowls back for Isis to see his teeth better. When she was finished with her assessment, she smiled and Nessie went to stroking his neck. Jacob handed her his paw carefully. Isis slowly turned it in different directions, admiring it. She then thanked him and returned to the porch. Jacob licked Nessie on the cheek and ran to the back of the house, returning fully dressed moments later.

"Well you're amazing creatures, and if you can fight vampires and win, I have faith in you," Isis said. "But werewolves are more dangerous, so I believe it's best that you stick together and not take on one alone. It's your safest bet."

"I agree," Max said, looking at the edge of the porch at something. "We want to keep you safe."

"Then we'll stick together as much as we can," Jacob replied.

"How will we be able to tell you from the other werewolves?" Edward asked. "You smell human to us right now, will your smell change or will you look different than they will?"

"We will smell different, I think. Most likely we'll smell like a werewolf," Max smiled. "You may or may not be able to smell the difference. When we're changed, we don't smell like a human. They do smell differently because of their diet . They will smell like human blood. But the easiest distinction will probably be our fur. We all have light colored fur: blondes, light grays, whites. They all have dark brown or black fur. Hopefully you'll all get to see us for a few seconds before the fight to be able to identify us as the good guys."

"Why do you have different color fur?" Alice asked.

"The same reason you have different color eyes. Our light fur just symbolizes that we're not tainted by human blood," Lexi said with pride.

"Yes. When we're wolves, all our eyes will be black, but when we transform back to human, our eyes go back to their light color and stay that way. Their eyes only go back to a dark blue that blackens with their hunger. The fur is just further proof of our abstaining from human blood," Max said.

"You said _human_ blood, does that mean you do kill animals?" Jasper asked.

"Some of us do, some of us don't. It's a personal preference or based on the need to feed on something during the moon," Isis said. "Better an animal than a person. I know you would agree."

"Yes we do agree completely," Carlisle smiled.

A few minutes later, Sam's pack decided to leave. Jacob told his pack they could leave too if they wanted, but he, of course, was staying with Nessie. Embry and Quil decided to go back to La Push. Seth and Leah quickly said they would like to stay and rushed into the house to take their seats. That was peculiar. Seth wanting to stay wasn't a surprise, but Leah staying longer than necessary with vampires was definitely unusual. I looked at Edward questioningly, but he just smiled and kissed my knuckles before leading me back inside.

Once we were inside, we packed back into the slightly less crowded living room. Esme offered the werewolves, Jacob, Seth, and Leah something to eat and drink. Seth and Jacob agreed to the food without second thought. A few of the werewolves took drinks. Even Leah took a drink _and_ thanked Esme for it. She was really confusing me now. She stayed and then took a drink and then was polite about it? Strange. Nessie shot me a confused glance to which I shrugged.

Alice and Lexi were emerged in conversation while she stole a few chips from Seth's plate. Seth smiled. Alice tried not to look disgusted that her new friend ate "greasy potato thingies" as she once called them when Jacob was shoving them in his mouth. I remember them being good, but for the life of me, I don't know why now.

Emmett was talking to Max. Rosalie was trying to look disinterested, but she faltered every now and then. I could see she really was having to try to put on her hard façade. She liked Max against all odds. I smiled.

Carlisle and Esme were emerged in conversation with Isis and Joseph. They were all smiling and making small talk. Edward leaned against the wall and pulled my back flush against his chest. He leaned in to brush his lips every so lightly against my neck. He trailed his lips up to my jaw where I felt his tongue reach out to my skin. I gasped and playfully elbowed him in the ribs. He feigned injury and smiled before planting a sweet kiss on my lips.

After everyone's independent discussions, Jasper said, "So, now I think we'd all like to hear your stories, and I'm sure we'd all be glad to share ours as well."

And so story time began.

**A/N: Okay, so don't kill me yet! You may be mentally cursing me for the whole Bella reading Edward and Nessie's minds thing, but hold your horses! I have my reasons, truly I do. They just won't be revealed until later. Actually I hadn't planned to reveal any part of my plan for the future until a little later, but as I started writing, it just kinda happened. I decided to leave it because what's one more burden for Bella to bear? Oh, alliteration, I like it. I honestly hadn't decided whether I wanted to take the story that far or not, so by writing that, I basically cemented the story continue further than I was considering. So, just trust me… it'll be fun. Really fun. This chapter was my longest yet. I could've made it longer, but I think I would like to make the rest of the werewolves' stories the next chapter instead. I can make it long. I'm sure.**

*******WARNING: RAMBLING AHEAD. THIS PARAGRAPH IS TO BE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. IT HAS ABSOLUTELY NO RELEVANCE TO THE STORY. As for the update taking longer than I intended, well I have tons of excuses if you wanna hear them. Like cows. Cows make up a rather large portion of the reason it took so long to write this. I'm serious, cows are annoying me these days. I won't bore you with the details of my excuses but it consists of running around a cotton field, lots of mud, old worn out boots and blisters, fixing fences, repressing the male libido, hay, lack of babies, spending money, and a Brahman Cross with a pinched nerve. But I am pleased to announce the bull I picked out last fall fathered his first calf today! I'm so happy he's not shooting blanks! And that's not even mentioning the rain, the cotton, and the blind dog. Oh, and I wrote the first half of this chapter after ripping out a bathroom vanity and half my bathroom floor. The second half I wrote after painting. My dog tried to help me paint. She somehow managed to get paint on her little Shih Tzu paws and then decided to walk through my bedroom and get paint on the hardwood floor. She's so helpful. We started renovating my bathroom here at my parent's house, which means this update is once again on dial-up. END OF RAMBLE. *******

**Thanks again for the nice reviews! I plan on replying to them as soon as I make it back to the confines of my apt and its high speed internet. Message me with any questions or just to say hey or tell me to quit rambling so much in author's notes. I always enjoy talking to people, in case you haven't noticed. Once again, I didn't go over this with a fine tooth comb, so I'm sure there are plenty of errors. **

**REVIEW!!! PLEASE? You can fuss at me if you want, or pat me on the back, or make me cookies. If you're considering the latter, chocolate chip is just fine. **


	8. Once Upon a Time

**Author's Note: Sorry it took so long. I've had a lot going on, and I had to get in the mood to write this chapter because of the amount of dialogue.**

**Things to remember for this chapter: The Cullens' stories. Aurelius was the leader of the werewolves that was killed by the Volturi. He had two sons, Bristol and Maximus. Maximus went to save Aurelius but was too late. Maximus had Isis and Max. Bristol had Cyrus and Lars. Cyrus massacred a village which brought about the split amongst the werewolves. Maximus killed Cyrus. Bristol killed Maximus. Max later killed Bristol for murdering his father. When I'm referring to Maximus Sr, I call him Maximus. Lexi is not biologically Isis and Joe's daughter. Genie is blonde. Just in case you forgot because I know it's complicated and confusing to have to remember. **

**You know I'm not Stephenie Meyer.**

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Chapter 8: Once Upon a Time

We all shifted to seats on the couches or the floor to begin learning about these werewolves we would call allies and possibly friends. Edward sat with his back against the couch in front of Alice who was perched on her knees nearly bouncing in anticipation. He smiled at Alice's obvious excitement and pulled me down to sit between his legs. He put one arm around my waist and his free hand twirled random strands of my hair. His face was too close to my neck for concentration. I shifted slightly to lean away, to which Edward stiffened and muffled a moan in my hair. Oops. It really is good to be eternally a teenager…But right now, I needed to focus. I gave him a stern look and grabbed both his hands in mine, and slowly my brain began to defog.

Carlisle exchanged a glance with Edward who nodded slightly. Then Carlisle spoke. "Well, I suppose I'll begin since I'm the oldest vampire here. I was born in the 1640s in England…"

I sat completely engrossed in Carlisle's story though I'd heard it several times before when he told me as a human, when he told Nessie, when he told Jacob and Seth. But Carlisle's story truly was remarkable and showed just how great of a man he really was. His resistance to temptation from the very beginning is beyond admirable. I may have restrained, but I was prepared and it was what I wanted. Carlisle just resisted because of who he was deep down. All the werewolves sat stunned throughout his recollection. He left out his stay with the Volturi for the time being and stopped his story before he got to the part of meeting Edward.

The werewolves were staring at him with wide eyes and a few open mouths. I glanced at Edward who had a proud look on his face. The werewolves were obviously thinking how amazing the blonde haired vampire before them was. I smiled because I, too, was proud of my eternal father figure.

"So you've never…" Joseph trailed off after a few minutes of silence. "You've never harmed a human?"

Carlisle looked pensive and a little sad. I could tell he was thinking of whether or not turning four vampires was harming them.

"No, he's always had the willpower. He's never drank from a human in all his years. That's how he is able to work at a hospital. The blood doesn't tempt him at all." Edward spoke up.

"What made you decide to become a doctor, Carlisle?" Lexi asked.

Carlisle smiled at Edward then Lexi. "I wanted to help people. I didn't want to lose my humanity. You see, I was alone for most of my existence," he said. "Having heightened senses is a great way to diagnose. Of course, it was much more helpful before modern technology. Now, I just figure it out before the tests are run."

"I never thought I'd say this about a vampire, but you're amazing, really. That's a beautiful way to spend eternity." Prudence said with an unshed tear in her eye.

Carlisle just smiled softly and nodded his head. Lexi looked almost like she wanted to run over and hug Carlisle. All the werewolves continued to look at him in awe.

Max decided to turn his focus to the werewolves. "Well, now that we know the oldest vampire better. I guess we could talk to the oldest werewolf," Max said. Carlisle smiled gratefully.

We all sat waiting to hear Max and Isis tell their story again, but it was Joseph who spoke.

"I'm nearly eight hundred years old, and one of the oldest werewolves still living," Joseph said. "I've seen many things throughout my life. I've been a part of many wars between our kinds. I've served the royal family of werewolves my entire existence. I was born a werewolf into a family of protectors of the royal family. I served two great leaders before we werewolves split in two.

"I protected and fought along side Gregarious and then his son Aurelius. I went with Maximus Sr. to Italy to bring Aurelius home, but we were too late. After that, it was only a matter of time before Bristol's arrogance threatened our secrecy. I had already decided to side with Maximus no matter the cost. Maximus was the only one who deserved to be a leader.

"I saw the way Bristol treated his people. I saw the way he hated Maximus. When the werewolves were forced to split, I was a little relieved to be rid of Bristol. I went with Maximus when he killed Cyrus for exposing us to vampires and killing so many innocent people.

"After Maximus's death, I stood behind Max and Isis when they took over. When Max left to go kill Bristol to avenge his father, Isis was beside herself with worry over her brother and she came to me. I fell in love with her that night and haven't left her side since." Joseph smiled sweetly at Isis and gently kissed her lips.

"Of course, I would've been with Max if he hadn't up and left with only a few men without telling me," Joseph said pointedly at Max.

"I wanted the best person there to protect Isis in case I didn't come back, and I'm pretty sure neither of you would argue that everything worked out just fine," Max said with a smile.

"No, you're right. We can't argue that," Isis said as she stared up at her husband.

"It's nice you two found each other," Esme said with a smile as she grabbed Carlisle's hand.

"Yes, it is," Carlisle said as he peaked at Esme. "Eight hundred years. Wow, that's quite a long life."

"Yes, but it wasn't much of a life until the past couple hundred years. Before the separation amongst the werewolves, I fed on humans on the full moon. It's a life I'll never return to. I'm happier in this life of restraint with Isis," Joseph said.

I saw Jasper nod out of the corner of my eye and knew he related all too well to that.

"I agree with you," Jasper spoke. "I suppose my story is next, but I assure you it's not a pleasant one for the most part."

He grimaced but continued. "I was the youngest Major in the Confederate Army, and I lied about my age. I was even younger than they thought and not even old enough to fight in the war…"

Jasper told his story of his change and his job of building vampire armies. All the werewolves were engrossed in the story. Even Jacob, Seth, and Leah were. They knew bits and pieces of his story, but never the extent of what he did.

"People listened to me, trusted me. Vampires did as I asked. If I wanted them to fight, they fought. When I was human, it was believed I was charismatic, and I carried that onto my next life. I later discovered I had the power to feel and manipulate emotions…"

He pointed out his scars. He told them about Peter and Charlotte and his hatred for his lifestyle. He told them of his confusion and his desire for something more.

"When I killed, I could feel their emotions just as they did, and it tore me apart every time. I couldn't understand how all the vampires I had ever known were unaffected by the killing. I hated it. I hated myself until I ended up escaping rain in a diner in Philadelphia," Jasper smiled at Alice.

"That's where I met Alice. She was waiting on me. I had never met anyone like her before, and I was confused, but I felt comfortable with her. I felt different and calmer than I had my entire existence. I felt hope. She told me she had seen Carlisle's family, and we went to find them."

"So you saw the Cullens, Alice?" Lexi asked.

"Yes, I started having visions of them after my change and I knew I would end up with them. I also knew my life was with Jasper and I had to find him first. And I did," Alice beamed at Jasper.

"So we showed up at their house, scared them half to death so to speak, and moved right on in," Jasper said with a small laugh.

"Yes. It was quite bizarre for two strange vampires to come up to our house like that. Jasper with all his scars and Alice who knew us all by name." Carlisle chuckled.

"Imagine mine and Emmett's surprise, when we come home from hunting to find we have two new inhabitants in the house, who, by the way, moved all of the stuff out of my room and into to garage because my room had the best view," Edward said with a forced huff.

"Oh, will you get over that already? It was over half a century ago, dear brother, and I knew I would need the closet space." Alice stuck her tongue out at Edward, who just chuckled.

"What about your past, Alice?" Lexi asked curiously.

Alice gave a small smile. "I don't remember my life as a human. I only discovered a few years ago what actually happened to me. I was born in 1901 in Biloxi, Mississippi. I was institutionalized because of my visions as a child. A tracker named James, whose name you'll hear again in Bella's story, wanted to kill me, but I was changed by someone who worked at the asylum before he could get to me. James killed that vampire and I began my new life alone with no clue who I was and only my visions of Jasper and the Cullens to get me through. I only discovered this information after Bella's run in with James a few years ago."

"That's terrible!" Lexi exclaimed as she ran over to hug Alice.

"It's okay. I don't remember my life, and I don't think I would want to anyway. I've had a good second life here with my family," Alice reassured.

"What about you, Lexi? What was your life like?" Edward asked.

"I grew up on a farm in Iowa with my parents and my younger brother. We didn't have a lot of money, but we loved each other and things were good. I helped out around the farm with my dad. I helped my mom in the kitchen, and I played with my little brother Matt. He was only ten years old." Lexi gave a sad smile.

"The werewolves came on a full moon. I was out in the barn brushing my horse. My dad and mom were sitting outside on the porch with Matt asleep between them. I don't remember much. Just screams. My horse was scared and she bucked and knocked me out. All I remember after that is waking up in a lot of pain and seeing Isis telling me it would be okay soon. Then the full moon," Lexi said.

"That was thirty years ago. I've been with Isis and Joe and Max's pack since," She said.

"That night when a few of Lars's pack attacked, Joe and I were nearby. We followed them, but we were too late to save her family. We followed one wolf into the barn where he found Lexi. She was unconscious and he had clawed into her leg. We were able to kill the wolf and the two others. When the sun rose, we took Lexi with us, and we've thought of her as a daughter ever since," Isis said. Lexi smiled and went to hug her adoptive parents.

"I suppose your story is next, Edward." Esme said.

"I was born in 1901 in Chicago to two wonderful people. My parents were happy and well off and very much in love. I wanted to fight in the war and couldn't wait to turn eighteen so that I could, but I never made it to eighteen," Edward said solemnly and I squeezed his hand.

"My father was the first to go. He died of Spanish Influenza. My mother and I both contracted it as well. She took care of me even though she was sick. We both ended up in the hospital, and I remember laying on my death bed beside her on hers. Carlisle was our doctor, and he changed me. I woke up in this new life with the ability to read minds," Edward said.

"I was alone and wanted someone for company, but I couldn't take a healthy life. Edward was dying, and I considered it. His mother asked me to do everything I could to save him. She seemed to know I could do more than other doctors to save him, so I did. He's been my best friend and son ever since," Carlisle said.

"I had my bout of rebellion where I left and took lives…"

"The lives of murderers and rapists. Don't forget to mention that part." I interrupted him.

He smiled softly at me. "True, but I still took lives. I knew everything they thought, and I couldn't do it, so I returned to Carlisle and this lifestyle where I've been nearly ever since," Edward said.

"Shortly after I turned Edward, I turned Esme," Carlisle said.

"Yes. I'm older than Edward, but he's an older vampire than I am. Physically, I'm even older than Carlisle," Esme smiled at Carlisle. "I met Carlisle once when I was a teenager. I had sprained my ankle and he was my doctor. I believe I fell in love with him then, but it wouldn't have worked out. Instead I married an abusive man my family set me up with."

"I was ashamed. I only stayed because I was pregnant with his child. It was all I had to live for. When my baby died, I had nothing else." Esme's expression turned sad and I felt a sudden wave of happiness from Jasper. Esme lifted her head and gave him a thankful smile.

"I jumped off a cliff after that. I remember pain, and then I awoke to see the love of my life completely unchanged by the touch of time," Esme smiled.

"They thought she was dead, but I could hear her faint heartbeat. I recognized her, and I couldn't let her die. I knew I loved her," Carlisle said looking into Esme's eyes.

I squeezed Edward's hand again and he kissed my neck softly. I shivered a little at the feel of it.

Genie told her story next. It was a sad one. She was born in Sweden in the 1800s and scratched when she was in her early twenties. She doesn't remember much except waking up and being a werewolf. She wandered around most of her life all alone. She hated what she was and she hated killing, but she couldn't stop herself. She had no way to restrain herself in order to become adjusted to her bloodlust, so she fed. She tried to kill herself numerous times, but the moon would always heal her. She loathed her existence until she ran into Max's pack in the 1970s and she'd been with them since and learned to deal with the bloodlust.

"When you know nothing of this life, it's hard to resist. We've all learned to resist the blood through years of practice and being physically restrained on full moons until we could handle it. I never had the option until I met them," Genie said.

After that, Rosalie and Emmett told their story. Rosalie made her story as light as she could and kept it as short as possible. When she got to the part about being Edward's expected mate, she rolled her eyes. Edward shook his head. Emmett snorted. He actually snorted. She told them about finding Emmett and taking him back to Carlisle.

"I thought she was an angel, but I felt the flames through my body. I wondered why there was an angel in hell, but I knew if she were there, it wouldn't be hell at all," Emmett said.

Seth "awed" on cue rather dramatically. Jacob coughed, "Suck up!" Nessie smacked him. Edward burst out laughing at that. I glared at Edward and effectively shut him up. I smiled smugly, and he placed kisses along my neck, effectively wiping that grin off my face. It was a cycle.

The next story told was that of the rest of the werewolves. Prudence and Randall were human brother and sister. Lars's clan approached Pru the day of the full moon when they were seemingly human and took her. Lars wanted to take her as his mate, but she didn't want it. They kidnapped her brother Randall and asked her to comply, threatening to kill him. She did in order to save Randall. They changed Pru, but they also changed Randall.

"I agreed in order to save his life. They told me they let him go and that he could live a normal, human life. I should have known they would lie. They changed him before they let him go. I never knew until I was told later," Pru said.

"I couldn't just leave her with him. I knew she only agreed because of me. I went out in search of any werewolf who could help me when I finally found Max's group," Randall said.

"But not before I fell in love with Pru," Chris spoke up. "I worked for Lars, and I saw how he treated Pru. When I found out he turned Randall before letting him go, I couldn't take it anymore. I knew Pru needed to get away, and I decided to do anything I could to help. I recruited my two best friends, Zander and Billy."

"I helped Chris and Pru, and we all escaped together," Zander said.

"We all found Pru, Chris, and Zander soon after their escape," Randall said.

"I didn't help. I didn't want to leave my life behind," Billy said rather shamefully. "Later I realized how much I missed them and how much I hated my life with Lars, so I left to find them."

"It's okay, Billy. You're here now," Pru smiled at him. "During the escape, I fell in love with Chris too."

"And to this day, Lars hates all of us and would want nothing more than to see us all dead," Chris said.

"Oh, and don't forget about Brenda," Pru said. "She would love to sink her teeth into me."

"Who's Brenda?" Alice asked.

"Brenda is who Lars took for a mate after Pru," Billy said. "She actually likes Lars for some reason, and she hates being second choice."

"Wow," was all I could say.

"Yeah, it's a regular werewolf soap opera," Pru said with a smile as she leaned into Chris.

"Oh, just wait until you hear Bella's story. The girl never had a chance at a normal life," Emmett said. Rosalie smacked him on the back of the head again. I felt Edward take in a ragged breath behind me, and I turned to look at him. I needed to wipe that sad look off his face, so I kissed him. It wasn't a gentle kiss. It wasn't sweet. I crashed my lips into his before he ever saw me coming. I deepened it before he even registered what was happening. I grabbed two handfuls of his hair and pulled him closer to me. I kissed him with all the passion I had.

When I pulled away, I heard a few cheers from Seth and Emmett and could sense the shock coming from the rest of the room. We usually refrained from that much public affection, but he seriously needed to change that expression. My breath was ragged and all I said was "Normal… overrated."

When I turned around, everybody was staring at me like I suddenly grew another head. Well all except Nessie who had her head turned and pressed against Jacob's shoulder. I would've been the color of a fire truck right about now if blood still pumped through my veins. I felt Edward's lips on my neck turn into my favorite crooked smile. Well, mission accomplished, I guess.

"Anyway, I moved here when my mom remarried to live with my dad. My first day of school Edward wanted to kill me," I began, but I felt Edward wince behind me. He hated I was so casual about that. He didn't kill me, so I didn't really see the problem.

"He took an extended vacation to get away from me, and when he came back, he decided to get to know me since I'm the only person whose mind he can't read," I said.

"And she's the one person whose mind I always want to know, but it's how I fell in love with her," Edward said with a kiss on my neck.

"Then he saved me from being crushed by a van in the parking lot," I said.

"And she figured out what I was with a little help from a certain Quileute," Edward scowled at Jacob.

"Hey, in my defense, I didn't believe any of that. If you would have told me a year later I would be a wolf and you'd be my sworn enemy, then I'd have laughed in your face," Jacob said with his hands palm forward in surrender.

"Well anyway we started dating. I met the family. Alice became my best friend. The first problem came when James decided to track and kill me. It's the same guy who wanted to track and kill Alice," I said. "Basically I ended up in the hospital after Edward came to my rescue and saved me. I was actually bitten by James, but Edward sucked out the venom."

I smiled proudly at him. "Did I mention my blood called to him, but he saved me anyway?"

"Because I loved you," he said sweetly.

"Things were well and good until that one incident, and then I went with Alice to save Edward…"

"That was no minor incident, Bella. I attacked you," Jasper said sadly.

"You tried, but you failed. It was my stupid fault for cutting my finger on the wrapping paper," I said.

"No, it was my fault for not foreseeing you'd cut yourself on your birthday," Alice said.

"No, it's my fault for ever putting Bella in harm's way again," Edward said.

"Would you all just shut up? Edward blames himself for natural disasters in Taiwan. Alice can't see everything. Jasper, you've learned to control your bloodlust. Bella, you were just clumsy. If you want to play that game, then it was my fault for being mean to Bella or could've been Emmett's for making her laugh. Now all of you shut up for the final time. It was nobody's fault," Rosalie huffed. Emmett looked a little in awe of his wife.

"So after we save Edward…"

"That _was_ my fault," Rosalie said in the smallest voice I've ever heard her use.

"I should've talked to Alice myself," Edward said.

"I should've been looking out for Bella all along," Alice said.

"I shouldn't have told you not to," Edward said.

"Seriously! Everybody stop! It was nobody's fault." I fumed.

"Mom, maybe you should back up and tell the whole story. I think everybody is a little confused," Nessie said.

I looked around at the perplexed faces of the werewolves.

"Right… I really don't want to tell that part," I said.

"At her birthday, she cut herself, and I wasn't prepared, so I charged at her," Jasper whispered.

"It made me realize all the unnecessary danger I was putting Bella in, so I made everybody leave, and I left her," Edward said. "I'll spend the rest of my existence regretting that."

"She was so broken when Ed… the Cullens left that she was miserable. I tried to cheer her up as best I could, but I turned into a wolf during that time," Jacob said.

I told them about jumping off the cliff and Alice thinking I killed myself. I left out the reason why I jumped off the cliff-- just to hear Edward's voice. I told them about going to Italy to keep Edward from trying to kill himself. I told them about Victoria and the newborn army and how the wolves helped us.

"We got married and went on our honeymoon to a private island…"

"And they had a little too much unprotected fun and three months later we were all blessed with little Nessie," Emmett interrupted and ruffled Nessie's hair.

I left out the parts of my story where Jacob thought he was in love with me. I left out the details of exactly how Nessie was born. I left out feeling the venom when it changed me.

"And I wake up as a vampire who just had a child that she can't see because she's half human. Then I find out Jacob imprinted on my daughter. Then Alice has the vision…"

"Imprinted?" Max asked.

Jacob explained to them about imprinting. I told them about the Volturi and how we had to gather so many vampires to witness Nessie was not turned as a child. I told them how Alice and Jasper traveled the world to find another person like Nessie. I told them how happy and peaceful the last few years had been until the werewolf showed up.

"Wow. I think your story trumps my story anytime," Pru said.

We talked a little while longer. It was well into the night when the werewolves left. Shortly after they left, Jacob, Seth, and Leah did too. Less than a minute after they exited, Jacob howled and Edward chuckled to himself.

"Dad, was that Jacob howling? What's wrong? What's so funny?" Nessie asked.

"Seth and Leah imprinted," Edward laughed.

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Later that night, Edward and I were curled up in our bed talking about the day when I remembered what I wanted to ask Edward earlier.

"Hey, earlier when Jacob was a wolf so Isis could see what he looked like, Nessie petted him. Why did that make you upset? It was harmless, really," I said.

Edward's lips were in a tight line and his eyes were deadly. "It wasn't that," he growled. "It was Jacob's thoughts. He was wondering if he rolled over, if Nessie would rub his _belly._"

I stared at him for a minute before laughing hysterically. So _that_ was why he was upset.

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**AN: Okay, so this chapter is kind of a fluffy filler. I've been dying to have Edward get mad for Jacob wanting Nessie to scratch his belly. **

**I want to say thanks for all the sweet reviews and encouragement. You're all the sweetest people on the planet, and I'm not just saying that for more reviews. Ooh, we finished the bathroom remodel, and it looks darn good if I do say so myself. **

**I posted the first chapter of another fiction I'm going to write called "Bulls and Blood." Yup, it's about the rodeo. I thought Cowboy Emmett, Jasper, and Edward would be fun. And Esme is a total badass. I just wrote one chapter to set it up because I couldn't get it out of my head. It's going to get better I promise. Also, "Old Moon" is still my number one prerogative. But I have a billion different ideas for different fics right now that I really want to write. Okay, not a billion, more like twenty. Yeah, I know. Don't fret, "Old Moon" will be finished. I promise.**

**REVIEW! Please? I will pull an Edward here. "What are you thinking?"**

**And go give a look-sy at Chapter 1 of "Bulls and Blood." It's a different style of writing than this is, and it's all human. **

**Oh, also if you want to read any really good fics out there, I have several really, really good ones saved under my Favorites. Check them out.**


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